Rakuten Eagles pitcher Ryota Takinaka (31) spoke about his enthusiasm for this season on the 3rd. This season's team includes Maeda, who has a total of 165 wins in Japan and the US, as well as established players such as Kishi and Hayakawa, and many competitors such as Fujii, Contreras, and Shoji. The right-handed center fielder, now in his seventh year, calmly commented, "Looking at last year's results, I think this reinforcement was inevitable. If I were putting together a team, it would be necessary to rebuild the team." Last year, no player on the team had double-digit win. Reinforcing the starting lineup was inevitable.

This season, he is expected to continue to be the "Takenaka in times of trouble". Last season, he missed the opening day rotation again, but he went 2-1 in four starts complete game and 1-1 in four starts The Hawks against ERA 1.42, including his first shutout game win in a July Softbank Hawks game. Softbank Hawks He has made the batting line a bit of a weakness for the team. I don't think it's absolutely necessary to be in the opening day rotation. The opening day is not everything. Last year, too, I couldn't make the opening day rotation. However, if we want to go up (standings) as an organization, it is definitely better to have as many available players as possible. I want to stay with that number of cards. （I want to get to the point where I can choose the players I want to use," he said. He intends to be prepared both physically and mentally so that his name will be the first one to come up if something unforeseen happens to the starting lineup.

In January, he participated in a joint training session with Chunichi Wakui, who has a total of 166 wins. Watching the back of the veteran, who is famous for his abundant amount of training, he realized once again the importance of doing more than that. "In terms of the amount of training, with players in that class running and training that much, I feel that I have to do more than that to catch them," he said.

On the first day of training camp, a man who had previously said, "Even in season, I can't throw 140 km/h in bullpen," recorded 142 km/h. Perhaps the results of his intensive training during the offseason with a senior who has been his mentor since his time with Rakuten Eagles are starting to show, as he laughed and said, "My output is a little too much," but he took a positive view, saying, "I've done everything I can. I'm not injured or in any pain, so it's good that I'm able to perform."

"When I'm given the chance, I want to be ready to not let it go. If I'm included in the opening rotation, I want to be able to run through it. Even if I'm not included, I want to be ready as the next card," Takinaka said, looking down at his feet as he walked towards the opening game.