KOBE, JAPAN—Even in his native land and native tongue, Blue Jay Munenori Kawasaki can be quirky, colourful and entertaining.

The difference is that when the Japanese infielder doesn’t have to fish around for words to express himself in his limited English, he can also be insightful.

Kawasaki took time after a recent workout here to discuss his return to the Blue Jays for a third season — this time on a minor-league deal with a major-league camp invitation — and one prominent physical change: His derriere looks, well, bigger.

“Hey, what are you looking at?” Kawasaki joked. “I’ve been really working on my lower body — not my butt, but the area around my hips and hip joints. The idea is to increase the range of motion so I have the foundation to make better plays on defence and take better at-bats. The result might be a bigger looking butt, but you should stop looking there and watch the way I am moving now.”

On this day he worked out at an indoor facility complete with hitting cage and spacious area to throw. He pulled a deflated red rubber ball from an equipment bag, inflated it with a long straw and worked with it between his thighs, strengthening the groin and inner legs.

Kawasaki was on the road, away from his off-season home in Fukuoka on the southern island of Kyushu — where he played professionally for 11 years, met his wife and ultimately settled down. At home, he says, he maintains a more rigorous routine of machine and weight training designed to increase his inner thigh strength and spread his hip joints for greater range of motion. It’s what he feels he needs to reach the next level as a middle infielder in the majors.

He might be on to something. When the Blue Jays gather in Dunedin, Fla., for their first full squad workout on Feb. 27, Kawasaki is expected to be the only Japanese infielder at any of the 30 major league camps. In fact, he’s one of just seven in MLB history; Kazuo Matsui was the first, with the New York Mets in 2004.

Two of them, Tsuyoshi Nishioka (Twins) and Aki Iwamura (Rays), suffered long-term leg injuries while trying to turn double plays. Kawasaki, meanwhile, has avoided the disabled list at the major and minor league levels and, building on his exercise regimen, says he plans to stay healthy by working on throwing to first base using different arm angles while leaping away from the sliding runner.

“Japanese baseball is strong on the fundamentals,” Kawasaki said. “We are taught as little kids to square your body up to the ball on defence. You’re supposed to get yourself in front of the ball to field it soundly and be in a position to make a good throw.

“As Japanese we take pride in that, and I think there is a lot to be said for the way we emphasize it, but the game is different in North America. There are lots of techniques Japanese don’t practice, like backhanded plays and jumping throws. There are even different kinds of jumping throws, an overhanded one and an underarm one. I couldn’t make those plays with the lower body I had when I came over. You need to twist and push from a base in the air, and I didn’t have that. Now I’m trying to get it so I can do that stuff, too.”

After some prodding, he said one of his proudest moments came last year when he finally made an out with a jumping throw for Triple-A Buffalo.

“Where does the Pirates Triple-A team play?” Kawasaki asked.

Indianapolis, he’s told.

“No one in Japan has ever heard of Indianapolis, but to me it’s a great city because that is where I did it: I threw a guy out at first base on a running, backhanded play in the hole at shortstop, where I jumped and twisted my body in mid-air and was able to throw the ball underhanded all the way to first.

“Until then I never had the confidence to try such a thing in a game. I love Toronto, but now I love Indianapolis, too.”

And therein lies why Kawasaki jumped on the Blue Jays’ offer of a one-year, minor-league deal. He could have earned much more in Japan, but sees a greater opportunity in North America.

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“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so you can’t say I could have signed a better deal in Japan because you don’t know what’s beautiful to me,” Kawasaki said. “In terms of what I want, the Blue Jays offered me the most magnificent deal in the history of baseball.

“I’m so happy and grateful because I can continue learning the plays I want to make. Of course, I want to play in Toronto. But if I have to go to Buffalo that’s fine, because I can work on it there, too.

“I love baseball. That’s it. I love baseball and Toronto has offered me the chance to keep learning and working on things I couldn’t do in Japan. For that reason, I love Toronto.”

Brad Lefton is a bilingual, St. Louis-based freelance journalist who covers baseball in North America and Japan. He interviewed Kawasaki in Japanese for this article.

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