Nippon-Ham made targeted reinforcements through the active player draft.

Although Nippon-Ham 's team relief ERA was 2.45, they used pitcher who were in good form at the time, such as Seigi Tanaka, Taisho Tamai Yukiya Saito, Tamai Taito, Ryusei Kawano Nao Miyanishi, Miyanishi Naoki, and Kenta Uehara, in a winning pattern, and they did not have an established formula for absolute win.

Among them, The Giants selected Daiki Kikuchi in the active player draft. Kikuchi joined The Giants as the sixth pick in the 2021 development draft, was registered as a controlled player in 2022, and pitched in 50 games in 2023. In 2024, he pitched in 36 games for the farm team, posting ERA of 1.00, but did not pitch in the first team and was relegated to a development player. He was relegated to a controlled player again midway through this season, pitching in seven games for the first team with ERA of 1.80.

What stands out is his high strike out rate. This season, he pitched 10 innings across 7 games in the first team, strike out strike out rate of 14.40. In the farm team, he pitched 50 innings, striking out 54 strike out for strike out rate of 9.72. Kikuchi's career strike out strike out in the first team is an astonishing 10.99.

In the last two years, he has shown stable pitch on the farm, but he has not had a chance to pitch in the first team. Pay attention to the right-hander, who has the potential to break through in a new world.