When Yankees general manager Brian Cashman and assisant general manager Jean Afterman traveled over 6,000 miles from New York to Saporro, Japan to watch the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters’ two-way phenom Shohei Otani play two weeks ago, Cashman’s comments to reporters on the 23-year-old’s performance were forced to be rather brief.
But with Otani expected to leave Japan for Major League Baseball this winter — according to multiple Japanese reports — Yankees manager Joe Girardi can’t even help himself from mentioning him in conversation.
“[Otani’s] definitely intriguing,” Girardi told the New York Daily News before the Yankees faced the Rays on Wednesday.