Today’s TBNL looks at some NPB Draft highlights and several players with MLB experience who thrived in Japan this past season.
Rintaro Sasaki is a surprise selection in the NPB Draft
Japan’s NPB held its draft on Thursday. 73 players were selected in this year’s draft, with another 43 being taken as developmental prospects.
The NPB’s draft operates much differently from Major League Baseball’s. Teams essentially bid for the right to select players, with a lottery held if more than one team gets in the mix.
Infielder Masahiro Tateishi was the first-overall selection by the Hanshin Tigers, with the Tigers winning the lottery after the Hiroshima Carp and Nippon-Ham Fighters also submitted interest in selecting the 21-year-old (he’ll turn 22 on Nov. 1). Tateishi is considered one of the top hitting prospects to come out of the college ranks in recent years.
High-school right-hander Genki Ishigaki, who many viewed as the best arm available in this year’s draft, was selected by the Lotte Marines. Pre-draft reports suggested Ishigaki was considering interest from MLB teams (his signing would have fallen under international amateur free agent rules).
The big surprise of the evening, however, was the selection of first baseman Rintaro Sasaki.
Sasaki famously made headlines in 2023 when he announced plans to bypass the NPB Draft and enroll at Stanford University after setting the Japanese high school home run record at Hanamaki Higashi High School (where his father is the head coach and whose alumni include Shohei Ohtani and Yusei Kikuchi). He wants to play in MLB and felt that playing collegiately in the US would afford him an expedited path, as opposed to playing in Japan, where he would need to spend nine years in the NPB before reaching free agency (unless his team shows a willingness to post him before that point).
Sasaki batted .269/.377/.413 in 236 PA with eight doubles and seven home runs during his first season with Stanford. He then went to the Cape Cod League and struggled mightily, hitting just .107/.265/.357 in 10 games.
While Sasaki didn’t officially declare himself eligible for the NPB Draft, a pair of teams still showed interest in selecting him. The Softbank Hawks won the lottery over the Yokohama DeNA BayStars to secure the rights to sign him. Sasaki will have until after Stanford’s upcoming season to decide on his future.
Former MLB players finding success in Japan
Several former MLB players found success in Japan this past season (or past several seasons).
Luke Voit first appeared on the baseball world’s radar in 2018 when he erupted for 14 home runs over the season’s final two months after being a trade deadline acquisition by the Yankees. He’d hit 21 more the next season and a MLB-leading 22 during the COVID-shortened 2020 season. Voit couldn’t maintain that production, and following two more trades (including being part of the San Diego-Washington Juan Soto deal), he found himself playing in Mexico for the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
Voit started hitting again there, and scouts from Japan took notice. The Rakuten Golden Eagles signed him midseason, and the 34-year-old first baseman batted .300/.384/.498 in 276 PA with a team-leading 13 HR and 39 RBI over the rest of the season. Rakuten has already re-signed Voit for the 2026 season.
Franmil Reyes was still just a power-hitting prospect in his second MLB season when the Padres included him in the three-team trade that sent Trevor Bauer from Cleveland to Cincinnati in July 2019. Outside of his 108 career home runs over seven MLB seasons, Reyes’ bat failed to develop more consistency, and he found himself signing in Japan for the 2024 season.
Reyes has hit .282/.347/.535 in 899 PA over his two seasons with the Nippon-Ham Fighters, with 57 HR and 155 RBI (including 32 and 90 this past season, which led the Pacific League). The Fighters will bring the 30-year-old outfielder back for at least one more season.
Two left-hander pitchers — Foster Griffin and Anthony Kay — appear “likely to return to MLB” this offseason, according to several reports. I briefly touched on the Griffin news earlier this week — he tore his UCL during his MLB debut with the Royals, bounced around the minors a bit, and then spent the last three seasons pitching to a 2.57 ERA out of the bullpen for the Yomiuri Giants.
The Mets selected Kay, a Long Island native, from the University of Connecticut in the 1st round of the 2016 Draft. Three years later, they’d trade him (along with Simeon Woods Richardson) to Toronto for Marcus Stroman. He spent parts of four seasons with the Blue Jays, followed by short stints with the Cubs and Mets, before heading overseas.
Kay’s first season in Japan with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars was solid, including a seven-inning scoreless outing in Game 4 of the Japan Series. His second season was even better. Kay posted a 1.74 ERA over 155.0 IP, the second-lowest mark in the league this past season, while striking out 130 and walking 41.
League leaders
Sandro Fabian made his debut with the Rangers in September 2024, going 0-for-5 in three games. The 27-year-old outfielder asked the Rangers for his release following the season so that he could head overseas, agreeing to a three-year, $5.8 million contract with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp. Fabian finished his first season in the NPB with a .276/.315/.427 line over 572 PA, with 30 doubles and 65 RBI. His 17 homers tied for sixth in the Central League.
Jason Vosler posted a mediocre .207/.274/.395 line over 288 PA over parts of four seasons in the majors, but crushed Triple-A pitching in 2024 enough to draw interest from Japan, eventually signing with the Chunichi Dragons. Vosler hit .261/.312/.429 this past season for the Dragons with 33 doubles (second in the CL) and 13 home runs.
Andre Jackson posted a 4.25 ERA over 82.2 IP in parts of three seasons with the Dodgers and Pirates. The right-hander has a 2.60 ERA over 293.2 IP in the last two seasons with the BayStars. His 10 wins were sixth in the CL this past season.
Meanwhile, Trevor Bauer (4.51 in 133.2 IP) and Peter Lambert (4.26 in 116.1 IP) had the worst and third-worst ERAs in the CL among qualified pitchers.
Tyler Nevin put up similarly subpar numbers to Vosler over parts of four seasons in the bigs, hitting .204/.299/.315 in 591 PA. His first year in Japan went much differently. Nevin batted .277/.346/.448 in 570 PA this past season, finishing fifth in the Pacific League with 24 doubles and third with 21 homers.
Kohei Arihara, who pitched to a 7.57 ERA over 60.2 IP with the Texas Rangers in 2021 and 2022, finished the year tied for the PL lead with 14 wins and second with 175.0 IP.
Andrés Machado struggled to post a 4.48 ERA over 148.2 IP with the Royals and Nationals over parts of four seasons in the majors. He’s been among the top relievers in the PL over the last two seasons, posting a 2.28 ERA and finishing third with 28 saves this past year.