pitcher Kenta Maeda, who joined Rakuten Eagles, held an introductory press conference at Rakuten Eagles Mobile in Sendai on the 16th. number will be 18.

When asked about his impression of Sendai at the press conference, he immediately replied, "It's cold." He revealed, "I'm not very good with the cold." Maeda moved from Hiroshima to the Dodgers in 2016. In 2020, he was traded to the Twins, based in Minnesota in the northern United States. According to data from the Japan Meteorological Agency, the average temperature in Minnesota (Minneapolis and Saint Paul) is about 8.2 degrees Celsius. After that, he moved to The Tigers as a free agent, but the average temperature in Detroit, where the Tigers are based, is about 10.4 degrees Celsius, so he spent about six years in cold regions. "In Major League Baseball, I was traded to Minnesota, where it was really cold. Then I became a free agent, and I wanted to go somewhere warm, but I ended up in Detroit, which was also cold. Now I'm returning to Japanese baseball in Tohoku, which is another cold place. I guess I have a connection to cold places," he said with a laugh. "I played in cold places in America for six years, so I've built up some immunity, and I have my own ways of dealing with it. In that respect, I'm glad I played in cold places in America."