The 2025 Professional baseball Draft Conference supported by Lipovitan D will be held on Thursday, October 23rd.

How did the players selected in last year's draft achieve their first year as professionals this season? We look back at the Saitama Seibu rookies who made their first-team debut, including Seiya Watanabe, who became the first rookie to reach the required number of at-bats since 2017.

Second-round draft pick Seiya Watanabe played in 109 games in the first team.

Seiya Watanabe, the second-round draft pick, started in the starting line-up team at the start of the season. He started in the opening game as the fifth batter and left fielder, and immediately recorded two hit in three At Bat. From there, he set a team record for a rookie hit in six consecutive games. He had a brilliant debut.

Although he spent some time adjusting with the second team due to injury, he returned to the first team at the end of June and once again led the batting lineup as a key player. Despite being in his first year, he was selected by fan and player vote and also participated in the "Mynavi All-Star Game 2025." Overall, Watanabe had a batting average of .259 and Home Run in 109 games. He is the team's 10th rookie to reach the required number of at-bats since Sosuke Genda in 2017.

Taiyo Sato was registered as a controlled player in July.

Taiyo Sato, who joined the team as the second-round development player, made his presence felt in the farm team from the beginning of the season, batting .285 in 74 games. He also participated in the Fresh All-Star game and was registered as a regular player on July 25th. Since then, he has played in 13 games for the first team, recording his first professional hit in a game against Hokkaido Nippon-Ham on August 5th. He also had a great performance against Tohoku Rakuten on October 3rd, recording three hit and three RBI, concluding his rookie year in good form.

High school graduates such as Hiroto Saito and Hibiki Shinohara Hibiki also made their first-team debuts.

Hiroto Saito, who joined the team as the first draft pick, started late due to injury, but played in 30 farm games and recorded a batting average of .290. He made his first appearance in the first team against Fukuoka Softbank on September 28th, and then got his long-awaited first professional hit in the game against Orix on October 2nd.

Drafted fifth-round pitcher Hibiki Shinohara made his first-team debut on September 7th against Chiba Lotte Marines. It was a bittersweet first-team debut, with 89 pitches in 4.2 innings, allowing 7 hit 3 Hit by Pitch strike out 4 runs. However, he showed his potential by pitching in 16 farm team games, posting an 8-5 record with ERA of 2.20. We're excited to see if he can get his first professional win next season.