On the 29th, Seibu Lions announced that they had acquired outfielder Rakuto Wakabayashi (28) from The Giants Yomiuri Giants in a cash trade. This marks Wakabayashi's return Seibu Lions since the 2024 season.

outfielder, a right-handed pitcher and right-handed batter, was drafted by the Seibu Lions as the fourth overall pick in the 2020 draft out of Komazawa University. He was traded to the The Giants midway through the 2024 season in exchange for Seiya Matsubara. In his sixth professional season this year, he has appeared in 21 games, batting .179 with 5 hit. He has not been named to the RBI or the home run.

Seibu Lions finished the first half of the season in second place, 5.5 games behind the league leaders, Softbank Hawks. Currently, both outfielder, who joined the team as a free agent from DeNA last offseason, and Hasegawa, who won the team's first-ever MVP award in the interleague series, are out due to injury. Nishikawa, who won his first Golden Glove Award last year, is fixed as center fielder, and new foreign player Canario, An-Ko Lin, Kishi, and Hiruma are competing for the left and right field positions, but concerns about their defense and batting performance have prevented a complete settling in. After winning the interleague series for the first time in franchise history, they have a record of 11 wins, 19 losses, and 1 tie, failing to win close games. As they aim for their first championship since 2019, Wakabayashi, who possesses both clutch hitting and speed, has been the one to be called upon.