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

Softbank Hawks Chief Baseball Officer Kenji Johjima (50) demonstrated his prowess as a lucky tactician. In the first round, where he had hinted at a bold pick of Oda from Yokohama, he instead nominated Taisei Suzuki from Aoyama Gakuin University and secured the negotiating rights after a competitive draw with Lotte. 'I'm the son of a mahjong parlor owner, so I was born with a strong right hand for drawing,' he said, having luckily grabbed the remaining lot for the second consecutive year. He then followed up with a series of surprise picks from the Taiwanese and American baseball leagues in the eighth and ninth rounds.

With a triumphant expression and his right hand raised at the venue, he remarked, 'Once again, it was left until the very last tile.' Although they did not end up signing him last season, he had previously won the negotiating rights for Stanford University's Rintaro Sasaki (now with the Marlins) after a contested first-round pick with DeNA. Once again, he demonstrated his natural ability to win when it matters most.

Regarding the decision to pass on nominating Oda, he explained, "I thought about it until the very last moment. The Giants nominated him? Let's not worry about other teams." He demonstrated his tactical prowess in the 8th and 9th rounds. In the 8th round, he selected Fukami, a hidden gem and Japanese right-hander from National Taiwan University of Sport, and in the 9th round, he made a bold move by nominating Sato from Pennsylvania State University, a right-hander who can hit 159 km/h and has a strong desire to play in the Major Leagues. Selecting seven pitchers for the active roster was also unusual. It was a draft where he fully exercised the "Joe style." (Koichiro Shimao)