Yakult catcher Naoki Matsumoto (31) held contract renewal negotiations at the team office in Kita-Aoyama, Tokyo on the 29th, and signed for 19 million yen, which was doubled. This season, his seventh year as a pro, he played in a career-high 60 games and set a career-high batting average of .269. Despite being in the tough position of catcher, he was praised for his ability to fight through the year with the first team.

He has been incorporating training to widen his range of motion that was taught to him by Aoki, who retired at the end of this season, several years ago, and he says, “I feel like I’m becoming younger and getting fewer injuries every year.” The 31-year-old says, “I feel like Benjamin Button. He might be as big as a baby by next year or so.” He drew laughter from the press by mentioning the name of the main character who had become younger.

He said that the team told him, “We want him to perform better than this year and contribute to winning the championship.” He added, “I have to do it as a player. So that I can make a solid contribution.” During the off-season, he will train under Seiichi Uchikawa, an alumnus of the team and also a right-handed hitter, just like last off-season.

As a goal for next season, he wrote “‘Contribution'” on the colored paper, and added, “As an athlete, as long as it’s a team sport, the biggest goal is to win. The reason for an athlete’s existence is to win. To win, hit and defend. “I want to do it for the sake of the team’s raison d’être,” he said with emphasis.