By Jim Allen, KYODO NEWS - Jan 26, 2018 - 14:09 | Sports, All

Slugging ace pitcher Shohei Ohtani is likely better off now because of his circuitous path to the majors, according to former Orix Buffaloes and New York Mets manager Terry Collins.

Five years ago, Ohtani turned down dream offers from American clubs as a high school senior, choosing instead to play five years in Nippon Professional Baseball. And Collins is just one of the latest to say Ohtani might be more advanced now because of that decision.

"What he did in Japan really helped him. You can get stuck in the (American) minor leagues," said Collins, who built up the Los Angeles Dodgers farm system prior to taking over Orix.

"You can refine your game in Japan, it can really help."

"I'm not saying he wouldn't have made it (in the minors). But we see it all the time with No. 1 draft picks. Some of them don't make it. He's had a chance to taste it on the field in action against credible players (in Japan). His stuff plays and takes over and I think he'll do fine here."

Speaking by phone from New York, where he finished an eight-year run as Mets manager, Collins also talked about his own abrupt departure from Orix in 2008 and shared his thoughts on player development in Japan and the majors.

When he arrived in Japan in October 2006 to announce his signing with Orix, Collins became the fourth active foreign manager in NPB. Asked to replicate his Dodgers success with a struggling, older Orix club, Collins said he wanted to give as many opportunities as he could to younger players.

"I immediately saw some talent, (outfielder Tomotaka) Sakaguchi, (shortstop Keiji) Obiki, some of those young guys who were coming up," Collins said. "I thought it's time to build this. Let's look at the young players, let them play, let's see the players we were going to have and then make adjustments as you got into it."

"We had some athletic, talented young players, but we never seemed to be able to get them in the lineup due to the fact that we had older star players. It got to the point where I was, 'Look. You asked me to come here and help. If you want to do it another way, that's fine, but I'm the wrong guy.'"

"I think there's a certain way to build an organization and so I decided to leave."

Collins simply felt the organization wasn't exhibiting the patience he thought was necessary.

"You've got to take your lumps, to be able to deal with the failures," he said. "One of the things about baseball is it's kind of a negative sport. You're going to fail more than you're going to be successful. It's going to take some of the younger players a bit more time. And I felt we had some good younger players."

The Buffaloes' failure to commit to youth was in sharp contrast to his next big job with the New York Mets. Collins credited the Mets' success to general manager Sandy Alderson's ability to stick to the program.

"Everybody wants everything to happen overnight and you've got to have patience," Collins said. "If you don't, you're going to continue to juggle things and you're going to drop some balls along the way."

"With the Mets, we had patience with some of our young pitchers. We knew there was going to be a learning curve and it was going to take some time. Yet, now you look up and, we had some injuries last year, but when you've got (Jacob) deGrom, (Matt) Harvey, (Noah) Syndergaard, (Steven) Matz, (Zack) Wheeler, they're five of the most talented young pitchers in all of baseball. And they're all on the same staff due to the fact that we didn't panic and we just said, 'Hey. This is going to be a process and we're going to build up.'"

"And they took us to the World Series."

One day during the 2006 season, Collins was fuming about the club's top pick in the high school draft, slugger Takahiro Okada, being benched on the farm team for not hitting.

As a skipper, Collins couldn't figure out the team's logic at the time. But should he get a chance to manage a Japanese development program, he said his focus would be on teaching -- and then learning from failure.

"Winning should take second place," Collins said. "I'm going to go back to (Takahiro) Okada. Everybody knew this guy had tremendous talent. But to just expect him to hit 30 home runs? It doesn't happen. He has to learn how to do it. You have to teach him how to do it. You have to put him in there every day. You've got to help him get through the tough times. It's not about penalizing guys when they fail. It's about learning from failure and trying to get better."

"If I was going to come back to Japan and run the minor leagues, I wouldn't even worry about the record."

Collins said he would also like more minor league games, but said his team-focused execution sermon with the Dodgers wouldn't be necessary in Japan.

"There's a tremendous value in playing. You can practice and practice and practice. But it's like golf. You can hit thousands of balls on the driving range, but can you do it on the field, because your heart beats a little faster in competition. You can't teach competition."

And while Ohtani will be competing at a higher level than he has, Collins has no doubts about the slugging ace's -- or other Japanese players' -- ability to work hard, check his ego at the door and play for the team.

"We know one thing, they work hard. That's one of the things about the Japanese game, the execution is very, very important."