Both players have a strong presence on their teams, which have been plagued by injuries.

pitcher Akira Kawase of Fukuoka Softbank and Kento Kawase of Orix have been making their presence felt in the first team since the early stages of the season. With Fukuoka Softbank having a string of injuries among fielder and Orix having several long-term absentees among their relief pitchers, the presence of these two players, who compete fiercely in Pacific League as brothers, is a big deal for their respective teams.

This time, we will introduce the characteristics of the two players based on the indicators they have recorded, and the areas where they will show significant improvement in 2025. We look forward to seeing even more success from these brothers, who have shown the potential to make 2025 their breakout year. (Results as of the end of the match on April 25th)

In 2025, various batting indicators will improve and he will be more productive as hitter.

The annual indicators that Akira Kawase has recorded so far are as follows.

His career batting average is .232, his on-base percentage is .277, and his career average IsoD (the difference between batting average and on-base percentage) is a modest .046. Considering these numbers, it can be seen that he is more of an aggressive batting player than someone who carefully watches the ball.

In addition, his ISO, which is an indicator of the so-called "true slugging percentage" that excludes the influence of single hit, is only .055, which is not very high. However, his ISO for 2025 is .150, which is significantly higher than his career average, indicating a significant improvement in his slugging ability.

In addition, his productivity as hitter has also improved significantly, with a slugging percentage of .450 this season compared to his career average of .286, and an OPS of .783 this season compared to his career average of .564. Following on from his game-tying hit with two outs in the ninth inning Orix on April 22nd, he is showing signs of continuing to make an impact in the future.

He was unlucky in the early part of his career, but that has changed in recent years.

From here, let's look at the "BABIP" value, which indicates the percentage of batted balls in play that became hit, excluding Home Run. BABIP is considered to be an indicator that is heavily influenced by luck, and .300 is generally considered to be the standard value.

Akira Kawase 's career BABIP is .280, well below the standard value of .300. In particular, from 2018, when he made his first-team debut, to 2021, his BABIP was below .280 in each of the four years, which was one of the reasons why he struggled with his batting, with a batting average in the single digits for four consecutive years.

However, in the four years since 2022, he has had three seasons in which his BABIP exceeded .310, which suggests that he is beginning to show signs of recovery after not having much luck in the early part of his career. Considering that his batting average dropped slightly to .236 in 2023, the only year his BABIP fell below .300, it would be natural to think that an improvement in his BABIP is directly linked to Akira Kawase 's batting average.

As can be seen from the fact that both Yuki Yanagita and Kensuke Kondo have career BABIPs above .350, the career average BABIP of hitter varies greatly depending on the player. Since left-handed hitter with good speed who are more likely to get infield hit tend to have high BABIPs, attention will be focused on whether Akira Kawase can utilize his own characteristics to stabilize his BABIP at a high level in the future.

strike out have increased BB have decreased, showing ideal progress as pitcher.

Next, let's take a look at the annual indicators that pitcher Kento Kawase has recorded.

In 2024, the strike out rate was 2.61 and the struck out rate was low, but this season's strike out rate is 7.71, a significant improvement. Furthermore, in 2024, the BB rate was 6.10 and control of the ball was also a major issue, but this season's BB rate has improved dramatically to 2.89, reaching a level that could be called excellent.

As a result, "K/BB," calculated by dividing struck out by Walk, has dramatically improved from 0.43 in 2024 to 2.67, indicating that his ability as a pitcher has been steadily increasing.1 "WHIP," which represents the average of runner the number of put up per inning, was also high last season at 1.74, but has improved significantly this season at 1.18, The reason for his increased stability as a reliever is also indicated in terms of this indicator.

Next, let us turn our attention to the index "BABIP," which indicates the percentage of in-played balls that turned into hit except for Home Run. Kento Kawase pitcher The BABIP of the "" has been below the benchmark of .300 for two years in a row, but the figure worsened from the previous year, with a BABIP of .286 in 2025 compared to a BABIP of .275 in 2024.

Nonetheless, ERA improved significantly from 3.48 to 1.93, and Avg also dropped significantly from .275 to .229. The growth of Kento Kawase pitcher is evident in the dramatic increase in the stability of pitch, despite the suggestion that it was less fortunate than the previous year.

Could both brothers make it big in 2025, increasing the number of "brother showdowns"?

The "sibling showdown" between Kento Kawase pitcher and Akira Kawase will take place for the first time in 2024 in the army, with the younger brother Kento Kawase pitcher closer his older brother Akira Kawase to 3 At Bat hit. In their first meeting of the season on April 8, Kento Kawase pitcher knocked out Akira Kawase with a struck out, and it will be interesting to see if Akira Kawase will show his brother's will and throw his first hit, or if Kento Kawase pitcher will continue to closer.

If Akira Kawase continues to fill in the gaps left by the injured and become a regular in the team, and Kento Kawase pitcher can grow into one of the main pitcher, there will be more opportunities for brothers to face off. It will be interesting to see if the Kawase brothers can make a breakthrough in the 2025 season, which will have a huge impact on both players.

Written by Ryota Mochizuki