Hiroki Kuroda will not be wearing a Dodgers uniform on opening day 2012. I don’t have any special insight into where he might wind up, but I do have a couple of quotes from Kuroda and his agent to pass along.
Here’s a one from Kuroda that appeared in Sponichi on December 30th:
“It’s an important offseason in that I’m taking another look at my life in baseball. I’d like to take as much time as is permissible and carefully make a decision.”
「野球人生を見つめ直す意味で大事なオフ。時間の許す限り、じっくり決断を下したい」
And the second is from agent Steve Hilliard, and appeared in Sponichi the previous day:
“We’re steadily getting closer to decision time.”
「(去就)決断の時期は着々と近づいている」
“Currently he’s carefully considering all his options, including Hiroshima and MLB teams, but it’s a very difficult decision.”
「彼は現在、広島とメジャー球団、全ての選択肢を検討し熟考している段階だが、とても難しい決断になっている」
The quotes from Hilliard are translations of translations, and I couldn’t find the original quotes published in English, so we’ll have to live with them for now.