Rakuten Eagles outfielder Naoki Sato, who transferred from Softbank Hawks in the active player draft, held an introductory press conference at Rakuten Eagles Mobile in Sendai on the 15th.

As the Hawks' first-round draft pick in 2019, he played 262 games for The Hawks, hitting 7 Home Run and driving in 28 RBI. In the offseason of 2023, he was released and restarted his career as a developmental player, but was re-registered as a regular player in June of last year. This season, he hit 5 home runs in 104 games, and his transfer comes at a time when he was having a "mini-breakout."

When asked about his impression of the team, Sato said, "I heard that if you do well on The Eagles, you can get 100,000 yen worth of Rakuten Eagles points. I want to do really well and make a living off of it," drawing laughter from the audience.

"I don't want to lose to anyone when it comes to speed and defense. I want to showcase my hitting power. I'll do my best to make the opening day starting line-up and be in the starting lineup," he said, expressing his determination.