◆ White Ball Ramblings 2025, No. 48
Softbank pitcher Kohei Arihara, who won Pacific League 's most wins title for two consecutive years, has decided to leave the team.
He was removed from the list of reserved players announced on the 2nd and became a free agent, which means he can now negotiate with any team in Japan or the United States.
Speaking of Arihara, he not only contributed to the team's first Japan Series championship in five years with a record of 14 wins and 9 losses this season with an ERA of 3.03, but he is also an absolute ace who has recorded double-digit win in each of his three years with the team.
He is in the third year of a three-year contract. He tried to make it to the majors in 2021-2022, but was unsatisfied with his results (3 wins, 7 losses). He seems to want to get revenge again, but he is not highly rated by the MLB as a whole. On the other hand, there are reports that teams such as The Giants are secretly working to acquire him in Japan. Along with other players who are also trying to make it to the majors, such as Munetaka Murakami and Tatsuya Imai, he has suddenly become a main character this offseason.
This alone is a major blow to the team's hopes of winning back-to-back championships next season, but in addition, the former perfect game man Nao Higashihama pitcher has also declared his FA status. The loss of the old and new aces could be called a "severe earthquake," but there is no sign of panic on the part of the baseball team. Is this the strength of a winning team?
One answer became clear late last month.
It was reported that Taiwanese baseball superstar Xu Wakhee pitcher will be acquired.
Xu was a right-handed pitcher with a maximum speed of 158 km/h and played for Wei Chuan until this season. He has an impeccable track record, having won the MVP award in the Taiwan Series in 2023. Several teams in Japan and the United States were interested in acquiring him, but he decided to join Softbank on favorable terms of a three-year contract worth over 1 billion yen.
It is said that the team's president, Sadaharu Oh, who is also a hero in his home country, personally ran for the negotiations and persuaded him to join the team.
Normally, when a team loses two ace pitcher, they desperately try to come up with measures to fill the gap, but what about in Softbank 's case this time?
Team formation begins in earnest every summer. Who are the main players at risk of losing? If a team is looking to rejuvenate, who should they target and how can they make up for their lost players?
If the team had been informed of the departure of either Arihara or Higashihama beforehand, they would have moved first to strengthen pitcher. However, in the draft, they selected Rintaro Sasaki from Stanford University in the United States as their first pick. It is unclear whether a power hitter will actually join the team, so a strategy to acquire such a power hitter requires a fairly long-term perspective.
Furthermore, they even informed Yugo Bando pitcher, who won the best ERA (2.48) at Western League this season, that he was out of the lineup (Bando was later signed by ). (Bando was later signed to a training contract with The Giants.) This is where Softbank 's leeway and strategy can be seen.
The team started the season with a string of injuries and fell to the bottom of the league immediately after the opening game, but manager Hiroki Kokubo has successfully rebuilt the team by establishing a solid pitcher staff.
In addition to Arihara, the four main starting pitchers, Liván Moinelo, Tomohisa Ozeki, Naoyuki Uwasawa have a combined record of 51 wins and 20 losses, giving them a 31-game winning streak. The killer trio of Koya Fujii, Yuki Matsumoto, and Kazuki Sugiyama have been selected for closer role. With a solid starting closer structure, any loss in personnel can be easily made up for with reinforcements.
In addition to Xu from Taiwan, the team is also investigating the acquisition of Andre Jackson and Anthony pitcher, who were with DeNA until this year, as well as Hanshin Tigers 's John Duplantier. Looking around the team, there are promising young players, including pitcher Ryosuke Otsu, who started in the Japan Series, as well as Yugo Maeda, Haru Matsumoto, and Shuto Ogata. With the return of pitcher Carter Stewart Jr., pitcher was plagued by injury this year, the management's calculations are valid that the hole left by Arihara will not be a fatal blow.
A kingdom is formed through fierce competition for survival within the team and financial power that surpasses other teams and the constant reinforcements of the team.
On the 24th of last month, 290,000 fans cheered at the V Parade held in Fukuoka to celebrate the team's victory as number one in Japan.
The manager has once again vowed to win the championship again, and at the same time, he is aiming to take another step forward by saying, "I will build a new team once again."
Even though the breadwinner is gone, there is no neglect.
Text by Kazuo Arakawa
