Kodai Senga watched with admiration. He watched with envy.

He watched Yu Darvish and Masahiro Tanaka make MLB stars look helpless. He watched Japanese standouts of lesser stature discover that they belonged on baseball’s biggest stage. He watched dozens of his countrymen live his dream, as he remained in Japan. 

His contract left him no choice. 

The Fukuoka Softbank Hawks ace voiced his desire to join MLB years ago, but every meeting with ownership and management ended with rejection. He pitched for the only team in Nippon Professional Baseball that has never made its players available to MLB franchises via the posting system.