Orix Buffaloes 's second-year outfielder, Yusuke Mugitani is showing signs of a return to batting form in minor league games. He's using his experience from the first team, where he was overly eager for results and ended up struggling, to improve his skills.
"There were times when I lost sight of myself. I had too strong a desire to produce results, to get a hit, to get a hit. I just want to face myself and be ready to be called up to the first team at any time." The day after he was told he had been demoted to the second team, Mugitani, whom we met at the team's facilities in Maishima, Osaka, was positive and had a bright expression.
Mugitani is from Sendai City. During his junior high school years, he belonged to Rakuten Eagles Senior, and after attending Osaki Chuo High School and Fuji University, he joined Orix Buffaloes as the first overall pick in the 2024 draft. He appealed to the public as outfielder with all-around skills in hitting, fielding, and running. In his first year, although he was sidelined from early June to the end of July due to a fractured ring finger on his left hand, he played in 79 games (batting average .231) and made his presence felt with a team-leading 12 stolen base. Hoping for further progress in his second year, he started the season with the first team, but his batting performance did not improve, and he was removed from the first-team roster on May 19th.
It was a home run he hit in his hometown of Sendai that threw Home Run. In the game Rakuten Eagles on April 11 (Rakuten Eagles Mobile) where he came in as a pinch hitter, Home Run a two-run home run to left-center field off pitcher Uchi Seiryu Uchi's 148km fastball high and outside. It was his first hit of the season, a home Home Run, and it should have been a hit that would give him momentum, but in the game the following day when he was used as a starter, hit in 3 At Bat. He didn't get hit until he hit a timely triple against Lotte on May 5 (Kyocera Dome).
"Things started to go wrong after that. I started to think about it after what would normally be Home Run to left field turned into a home run, and after hitting a fast fastball, I started to overthink whether the next pitch would be a fastball or breaking ball. (In the batter's box) I would think, 'Is this what's coming next? No, it's not this,' and before I knew it, the ball was there and I couldn't swing. It was the worst state I was in. I thought about it so much that I couldn't even understand what was going on," he revealed. He continued to struggle even in the midst of this vicious cycle. After the extra batting practice he volunteered to do, he continued to seek advice from first-team batting coach Kazuki Shimamura and practiced his swing repeatedly.
He was given 28 at-bats in the first team (3 hit At Bat 25 at-bats, 4 RBI, batting average .120). He could have been sent to the second team earlier to adjust, but team circumstances didn't allow it. Haruto Watanabe, who had mainly been used as a pinch runner and defense substitute until last season, had performed so well that he had secured the starting center field position, and Taishi Hirooka was sidelined due to a back injury, making him an indispensable player in the first team.
In the midst of his slump, he was reminded of the high expectations placed upon him. Coach Mamoru Kishida told him, "It's a waste for you to be in your current state. I want you to become a regular and a central player on the team," and Coach Shimamura apologized, "I'm sorry I couldn't get you in better shape." "I was the one who couldn't repeat my performance." He felt disappointed that he couldn't live up to expectations. He vowed to come back in better shape. His teammate and senior, Ryoma Nishikawa, whom he looks up to like an older brother, sent him a LINE message saying, "Don't get carried away, do what you need to do properly and come back."
In the minor leagues, manager Naoyuki Kazeoka advised him to "approach it with the image of free batting practice." "Those simple words brought me back to reality," he said, and he immediately followed through, hitting a timely doble in the game against Hiroshima on the 20th (Sugimoto Shoji Bs) and hit 2-At Bat-4 in the game against Hanshin Tigers on the 22nd (SGL). In the same series on the 23rd, he hit a game-winning RBI single in the 9th inning with the score 2-1.
"I'm not the kind of player who can easily regain my feel for the game. I just want to get up to bat and hit as many balls as I can." He swings the bat with unwavering determination and single-mindedness.
Interview and text by Masaki Kitano
