Rakuten Eagles pitcher Masahiro Ehara (25) expressed his joy at the addition of his classmate on the 24th. It was announced the day before that pitcher Chiharu Tanaka (25) would join the team from The Giants as compensation for Norimoto, who exercised his overseas free agent rights and transferred to The Giants. Tanaka and Chiharu were classmates at Kokugakuin University, and even trained together this offseason. Ehara commented, "I was surprised. We trained together, and we've talked about working hard together, so I'm happy that this has happened, and I want to keep working hard together."

They held the same position and were in charge of the same position during their university days. "I've been in the same position since my first year, for four years. In my first and second years, I was in charge of preparing sports drinks and other beverages, and in my fourth year, we were both like student leaders in the training department, supervising student training," he revealed.

Naturally, he is also very familiar with her personality and character. "She's very friendly and very communicative, so I think it will be easy to get along with her. She's very persistent, and there's no doubt that she's someone who can work hard and put in effort," he says emphatically.

Ehara pitched in 30 games as a relief pitcher last season, recording one win and one loss with ERA of 3.45. Going forward, the two intend to build their place in the team by helping each other improve as teammates. "Neither of us has an absolute position, so we want to keep our feet firmly on the ground, grow, and work hard to establish our respective positions," he vowed.