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

Rakuten Eagles manager Masato Yoshii responded to an interview on the 22nd, mentioning that The Giants had forcefully selected Yokohama's Shoki Oda, a pitcher, as their first-round draft pick, stating, "I leave the roster organization to the club, and since I haven't looked at amateur players at all, I don't have any particular thoughts on it."

Oda held a press conference regarding his future career at the school in Yokohama on the 15th, announcing his intention to challenge American baseball without going through the NPB. He explained the reason behind his highly unusual decision, stating, 'Ultimately, it comes down to my own feelings. I had a desire to play at the highest level in the world and to become the best in the world.'

Rakuten Eagles selected Kai Watanabe from Aoyama Gakuin University as their first-round draft pick and successfully won the rights to him after a competition with Chunichi. The manager stated, "We discussed it together and decided that The Eagles' reinforcement points for this year are a catcher and a player with good right-handed hitting. Since he matched those criteria, we chose Watanabe."