Dear Shohei,

I realize you aren’t talking to the press at the moment, Shohei, and that’s OK. Your brilliant play — even with a bum elbow, you hit a ball 115 mph Friday night in a win over the Mets — tells us all we need to know.

But while you aren’t answering questions at the moment, I hope you’ll take the time to read this letter written urging you to consider New York as you ready yourself to become the most-followed free agent ever.

You haven’t explained why you chose those seven finalist teams you did six years ago, or why you ultimately decided to play for the Angels. I certainly can’t blame you for your choice. Orange County, Calif. is a lovely place with excellent beaches and terrific surfing — if you’re into that sort of thing. More important for you, the Angels offered the DH option and a willingness to use you as you wished.

And if anyone thinks you should regret that decision because the Angels failed to make the postseason in your six years there, well, that’s just plain silly. There’s nothing to lament about your time there. The success you had in Anaheim — or Los Angeles, as the Angels now call Anaheim — is the reason you are the biggest free agent ever, even with a damaged elbow ligament.

Anyway, word got to me that when you visited with the Yankees six years ago, you suggested to them that while you loved the organization you couldn’t see yourself in a big city. That was before you omitted the Yankees from your list of finalists, seeming to affirm what you are alleged to have told them.

Your handlers now say those perceived preferences came before you’d spent any time in any of these places. Now that you’ve had the chance to travel to all of them, there’s no reason to assume your preferences are exactly the same as they were more than a half-decade ago.

Yet another person who knows you well said he also sees no reason why the West Coast is the presumed preference again (five of your seven finalists were on the left coast last time, with the Cubs and Rangers the only exceptions). That person says he assumes it was already decided you were going to the Angels, and the finalist list was just window dressing. After all, how could three NL teams be finalists when you really had to play in the only league with the DH back then?

That person says you are all baseball all the time, that they haven’t seen any evidence you leave your house in Newport Beach, except to get in your little black Tesla to drive to the ballpark (well, actually Ippei Mizuhara, your interpreter, drives you). And you can do that anywhere you wish.

If that’s the case, and you are all about baseball and accomplishing great things on the baseball field, as we think, please consider the Mets and/or Yankees.

There’s nothing better than being baseball star in New York, I’m told. You will be honored and revered like nowhere else, I hear.

You don’t seem to care a whit about money (if you did, you would have waited a couple years to come over as an unencumbered free agent rather than working for a fraction of your value). But if you do, I don’t think I have to tell you that Mets owner Steve Cohen has the most money and the greatest desire to win (tied with the Padres).

If you care, the greatest potential for marketing and commercial dollars is in New York, too. Look at Derek Jeter. He’s moved smoothly into a cushy career as a pitchman for everything not worth pitching. If Jeter can make millions pitching stuff, as the modern Babe Ruth, you could become the first billionaire ballplayer.

If you care about your numbers, you could put up bigger numbers at Yankee Stadium than anywhere else. Not many parks hold your drives, but anytime you lift and pull the ball, it’d be out in Yankee Stadium. In pinstripes, you might become the first legit 70-homer hitter.

Your chances to win would be huge in either place.

Yes, I get it, the Mets sometimes seem like East Coast version of the Angels — a star-crossed franchise. But in this new regime, they are doing whatever it takes to become a consistent winner (“sustainable,” they call it), and don’t bet against that beginning as early as 2025, when you will likely be ready to pitch again.

As for the Yankees, no else one posted winning seasons the past 25 years. Forget this year. It’s an aberration (we hope).

Also, if it’s the Dodgers you favor, as some guess, and it’s true that all you do is play baseball and drive to the park, and you remain in Newport Beach, it may take you two days to drive up to LA every day.

New York traffic is great. Compared to LA anyway.

Feel better,

An interested New Yorker