Los Angeles, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Neil ElAttrache picked up the X-ray in his hand, looked at it carefully for a moment, then said to Lin Guanglai in front of him:

"Lin, it looks like you're recovering well. Based on the current condition of your elbow ligaments, you should be able to return to the field in the new season..."

But then ElAttrache added, "However, my advice is that you should not pitch for at least the next year, or else it will be very easy to cause secondary stress injury to the repaired ligaments... In other words, for the sake of your future career, I suggest that the Yankees have you serve as a designated hitter in the new season—just like Ohtani who just joined the Dodgers."

Obviously, Lin Guanglai himself was not satisfied with this result.

Just as he was about to say something, Nomura Katsuhiko beside him held him back and said to the other party: "Understood, Dr. ElAttrache, but I still want to ask if this surgery will cause Guanglai to have issues like a decline in pitching ability?"

ElAttrache shook his head and smiled as he replied: "Rest assured, Mr. Nomura, we used an enhanced new TJ surgery plan for Lin this time. As long as he recovers slowly according to the pre-set plan, I guarantee Lin can return to Cy Young-level performance."

Hearing this, Nomura Katsuhiko finally breathed a sigh of relief, looked at ElAttrache in front of him with grateful eyes, "In that case, we can rest easy—thank you so much for the past year, Dr. ElAttrache!"

For this compliment, ElAttrache merely waved his hand, "I just did what I should do, and besides, being able to help such an excellent player as Lin regain new life is also my honor."

Not until the two walked out of ElAttrache's private clinic did Nomura Katsuhiko say to Lin Guanglai beside him:

"Guanglai, I know what you're thinking—I will talk to the Yankees about it, and in the new season, you should focus solely on being a designated hitter... You have already won all the honors a baseball player can win, and even more than once. What you should do now is consider your long-term career ahead!"

"Think about your family, think about your teammates, think about your fans. Would they really want to see you burn yourself out for a championship? Guanglai, you're not even 29 yet. Your future is long, and we don't have to make this season full of anxiety, do we?"

"Besides..." Nomura Katsuhiko suddenly paused, thought for a moment before continuing, "Being a designated hitter isn't necessarily a bad thing—don't many people want to know what kind of results you'd have if you focused solely on hitting? Isn't this the best opportunity to smack those doubters in the face?"

Under Nomura Katsuhiko's painstaking persuasion, Lin Guanglai finally gave up on his original idea: "Since the new season will focus on hitting, the original off-season plan will need to be adjusted."

Hearing this, Nomura Katsuhiko finally felt completely at ease—after many years of cooperation, he knows all too well the kind of person Lin Guanglai is: if the other party really insisted on pitching regardless of his body, things would become very tricky; fortunately, this situation didn't occur.

With a "screech," a car stopped in front of the two of them; the car window slowly lowered, revealing Ohtani Shohei's iconic face.

"Since there's nothing else, I won't disturb your gathering—Mr. Ohtani, I'll leave Guanglai to you." After confirming the visitor's identity, Nomura Katsuhiko handed Lin Guanglai directly to Ohtani Shohei and then turned to leave.

Lin Guanglai opened the car door and naturally sat in the front passenger seat. After looking around the back seat, he asked, "Where's Mayuko? Didn't she come with you?"—Tanaka Mayuko is a member of the Japan women's national basketball team and Ohtani Shohei's girlfriend. The two have been dating with marriage in mind for some time now.

"She has her own affairs and has temporarily returned to Japan..." Ohtani Shohei in the driver's seat replied weakly, and then fell silent.

Lin Guanglai looked in the direction of the driver's seat and found that there was an unmistakable fatigue on Ohtani's face, showing he has been quite tormented recently, "I've told you before, leave professional matters to professional people. Although Mizuhara Ichirō's business abilities may indeed be impressive, in the end, he's just an ordinary person—when an ordinary person without rules faces a lot of wealth not belonging to them, it's really quite normal for greed to arise..."

The Mizuhara Ichirō mentioned here by Lin Guanglai is Ohtani Shohei's personal interpreter. The two joined the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters together in 2013 and formed a quite good relationship; after Ohtani Shohei entered the posting system, Mizuhara Ichirō was also employed as Ohtani's personal interpreter, but their intimacy had long surpassed a simple employer-employee relationship—for Ohtani Shohei, Mizuhara Ichirō was almost like his second spokesperson.

However, after officially transferring from the Los Angeles Angels to the Dodgers and signing the second-largest 10-year, 700-million US Dollar contract in North American sports history this past winter, Mizuhara Ichirō was suddenly accused of embezzling over 4.5 million US Dollars from Ohtani Shohei's account to participate in sports gambling—for any athlete in any sport, participating in sports gambling is an untouchable red line, and any involvement is doomed to bring ruin to their reputation.