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

The Softbank Hawks selected Aoyama Gakuin University pitcher Taisei Suzuki as their first-round draft pick, and Chief Baseball Officer (CBO) Kenji Jojima drew the winning lot from the remaining slips in a competition with Lotte. He grinned, saying, "It was left until the very last tile (a mahjong term) again." Last season, although he did not ultimately join the team, Jojima made a surprise first-round pick of Stanford University's Rintaro Sasaki (now with the Marlins) and won the negotiating rights after a competition with DeNA. "As the son of a mahjong parlor owner, I suppose I was born with a strong right hand for drawing," he said, demonstrating his natural strength in high-stakes situations. He expressed high expectations, stating, "He is rated as the number one pitcher among this year's university students. Since Manager Kokubo and pitching coach Kurano both have strong ties to Aoyama Gakuin, I hope he becomes a large-scale pitcher who represents Japan."

In the interview immediately after acquiring the negotiating rights, he mentioned he would head to Aoyama Gakuin University for a post-draft greeting in 15 minutes, but later explained, "Since Rakuten Eagles GM Ishii said 20 minutes for Watabe's greeting, I said 15 minutes to not be outdone, but I will actually go tomorrow. The draft is still ongoing." Regarding Oda from Yokohama, whom he had hinted at selecting the previous day, he said, "I wasn't lying; I considered him until the very end. The Giants selected him? Let's not worry about what other teams are doing."