In the 2025 season, which marked the culmination of Lotte's "Vision 2025," they finished in last place with 56 wins, 84 losses, and 3 ties, 31.5 games behind Softbank, who won the league title for the second consecutive year.
To sum up, this season has seen the team's main players and foreign players who have supported them up until now perform poorly, they have been unable to win games that they should have won, and they have made a series of mistakes that do not even make it onto the record, and it seems that all of the backlash from fighting for A class status over the past few years has come out this season.
In the opening three-game series against Softbank, they were closer Kohei Arihara who had been a challenge for them until last season, until the fifth inning. However, in the sixth inning, trailing by one point, Akito Takabe hit a doble, and they scored six runs in one go to win the game. The next day, with the score tied at 4-4 in the tenth inning, Hiromi Oka hit a timely hit, and in the bottom of the inning, Naoya Masuda closed it out, giving them their second consecutive win. In the third game, with the score tied at 0-4 in the fifth inning, Soto hit a home run to bring the score back to 1 point, and in the seventh inning, Polanco and Oka hit consecutive timely hits to tie the game. With the score tied at 4-4 in the eighth inning, an opponent's error gave them the lead, and in the ninth inning, Koshiro Wada sacrifice fly and Takabe hit a timely hit to score additional runs, giving them their third consecutive win to start the season.
With a three-game winning streak, including a come-from-behind victory against last season's champions, Softbank, and a batting lineup that had been a problem, things looked a little different this year. In April, they were in fifth place with an 11-13 record, just 3.5 games behind the leader. However, from the April 29th game against Orix to the May 5th game against Rakuten, they lost six straight games. Despite win against Rakuten on the 7th, they lost five straight games starting with Seibu on the 9th. In May, they had a losing streak with a 6-17 record. The Marines have been a team with a lot of ups and downs in recent years. They went 10-8 in the interleague games, which seemed like a springboard for a rise, but they couldn't make a big winning streak from there. In the end, they lost every month except June, when they finished with an 11-11 record. They finished last in the league, losing every game to Pacific League teams.
Considering the batting line-up, the ideal would have been to accumulate win by "protecting the one-point baseball," but starter allowed the other team to score first, and they were unable to stick to their winning pattern until the end, resulting in them losing the game they were trying to win.The batting line-up's base running was "running to get to the next base," but they made noticeable base running errors and failed stolen base, and they also made a series of defense mistakes that did not even register on the record, making them unappealing.
◆ Growth of young people
Although the team finished in last place, it is not entirely without bright spots for the upcoming season. fielder Three players who are expected to lead the offense, Kyota Fujiwara, a seventh-year high school graduate, Ryusei Terachi, a second-year high school graduate, Misho Nishikawa, a rookie, and The Marines, an up-and-coming player, reached the regulation batting lineup. Although they did not reach the prescribed number of at bats, last season's farm Home Run and RBI double champion Daito Yamamoto also gained experience, as did the team's top Japanese 11 Home Run, Raito Ikeda, Kyuto Ueda, and Acevedo. There are also midfielders such as Toshiya Sato, Akito Takabe, Ryusei Ogawa, Atsuki Tomosugi, Naonori Yasuda, Koki Yamaguchi, Koshiro Wada, and Aito. The future is bright if a number of players can break through.
The key to the batting lineup is power. Soto led the team in Home Run runs with 13. While Laird and Martin were with the team, the young long-range hitters gained experience, and by now they should have been fully-fledged core players in the lineup, making the poor performance of Soto and Polanco seem unimpressive. However, this has not happened, which is perhaps a reflection of the team's current strength. It will be important to see how Yamamoto and Yamaguchi make progress next season and beyond.
On pitcher side, second-year high school graduate Yuto Kimura spent the entire season with the first team and recorded his first professional shutout game, making for a productive year. Haruya Tanaka and Shunsuke Nakamori performed well before the All-Star break, but were unable to contribute to the first team in the second half of the season. Even so, Koshiro Hiroike pitched in relief on the first team after the All-Star break, and second-year high school graduate Oto Hayasaka also briefly played on the first team, while developmental product Yuto Yoshikawa earned his first professional win. Rikuto Yokoyama sixth-year high school graduate, experienced some starting experience, but after returning to relief, he pitched with a relaxed style, recording a career-high 50 appearances, 20 hold, and 12 saves in a season, becoming an indispensable member of bullpen.
Looking at individual players, young players have emerged, but the inability to sustain this has been an issue in recent years. This season, the team has been struggling, and the active use of young players has been noticeable, but when it comes to competing for the league championship and the CS, there are doubts as to whether they are superior to veteran players.
Shota Suzuki and Miyako Sato, who broke out last season and played in the Premier 12 after the season ended, have struggled this season, and Riku Kikuchi who made his presence felt since last summer, has not been able to establish himself as a regular in the first team. The current situation has been one of "seemingly developing but not developing" and "seemingly not developing but developing" for the past few years. Looking at players who have produced results for two consecutive years, there are no fielder, and the only pitcher are Kazuya Ojima, Atsuki Taneichi, and Yokoyama, who has pitched in 40 games for two consecutive years. The continued success of young players will be essential to the team's rise next season.
How will the young players use this season's experience next year? How will the middle-aged and veteran players who struggled this season bounce back next season? fielder has emerging young players who could become core players, such as Fujiwara, Nishikawa, and Teraji on the field, and Nakamori, Tanaka Haru, and Kimura on pitcher. If the middle-aged, veteran, and foreign players can work well together, they should not end up with the same results as this season. Having missed the CS for the first time in three years, they can prepare for 2026 earlier than the top teams. We hope to have a productive autumn under new manager Saburo.
Interview and text by Yuta Iwashita
