2026 Professional baseball Draft Conference supported by Lipovitan D (22nd)

Nippon-Ham selected pitcher Haruki Komoda (Yamanashi Gakuin) as their first-round pick. As it was a single nomination without competition, manager Tsuyoshi Shinjo expressed his joy, saying, 'I've really got it.'

Regarding Komoda, he said, "I have nothing but excitement. I want to see him in action soon," and compared him to the Nippon-Ham main gun who led the lineup this season by playing in 128 games with a .313 batting average to win his first leading hitter title, along with a team-high 32 Home Runs and 82 RBIs, saying, "He felt similar to Reyes." He expressed great expectations, calling him "a player with nothing but dreams."

Manager Shinjo served as the lottery drawer for the first time in the 2023 draft, but he lost the draw for Chuo University's Yuhi Nishidate, who was also contested by The Giants. The following year, in 2024, five teams competed for Meiji University infielder Rui Muneyama. Team President Komura took charge of that draw and lost, but when Fukuoka Daiichi Ohori's two-way player, pitcher Leo Shibata, became a contested pick between them and the Softbank Hawks for the consolation first-round pick, Shinjo declared, "I'll go." He won the head-to-head battle against Manager Kokubo and shouted, "Yes!"

In last year's draft, three teams competed for Soka University infielder Masahiro Tateishi. Manager Arai of Hiroshima and Manager Fujikawa of the Hanshin Tigers joined the lottery. Manager Fujikawa, who took the last remaining ticket, won it, while Manager Shinjo, who drew second, missed out on the fifty-fifty chance. Shinjo suggested his retirement from the lottery, saying, 'Since a lottery has the responsibility of changing someone's life, I think I've had enough of that experience.' Even on the day before this year's draft, he stated clearly, 'I won't be drawing,' but he also laughed and said, 'On the day of, I might say, "Wait a minute. I'm going in."'