Tohoku Rakuten Eagles, aiming for their first league championship and Japan Series title since 2013, has a list of new players joining the team for the 2026 season.

(Updated on February 1, 2026)

*Name (honorifics omitted) / Position / number

<New Players>
Sota Fujiwara / pitcher / 13
Tatsuki Ito / pitcher / 20
Akira Shigenaga / infielder / 30
Toshiya Osakae / catcher / 72
Taisei Ito / pitcher / 79
Ryu Kutani / pitcher / 45
Shoya Sakagami/ outfielder /42

Daita Horomura / outfielder / 126
Shion Otsubo / outfielder / 129
Takuma Makazawa / pitcher / 133
Kyosuke Kaneko / infielder / 134
Taiga Shimahara / catcher / 122

<Current Player Draft>
Naoki Sato / outfielder / 38

<Transfer from another team>
Hikaru Ito / catcher / 27
Kenta Maeda / pitcher / 18
Chiharu Tanaka / pitcher / 29

<Foreign players>
Roancy Contreras / pitcher / 15
Carson McCusker / outfielder / 34
Jose Ureña / 22 / pitcher

pitcher Kenta Maeda, who played in MLB from 2016, has joined Tohoku Rakuten Eagles. Maeda was drafted in the first round of the 2006 high school draft by Hiroshima and became their ace pitcher. In MLB, he achieved double-digit win three times and made 226 appearances over nine seasons, with a record of 68 wins and 56 losses and ERA of 4.20. Tohoku Rakuten Eagles did not have pitcher who achieved double-digit win last season. With pitcher staff needing to step up, the pitching of the highly accomplished pitcher will be a major highlight this season.

Tohoku Rakuten Eagles 's catcher corps mainly consists of mid-career players such as Hikaru Ota, Kengo Horiuchi, and Tsuyoshi Ishihara. Now, veteran Hikaru Ito has joined the team. He will surely make use of his extensive experience, having formed batteries with top pitcher at Orix Buffaloes and Yokohama DeNA, in his new environment.

​Ryosuke Tatsumi, who had exercised his domestic free agent rights, remained with Tohoku Rakuten Eagles. Last season, he was demoted to the farm team and his appearances in the first team were reduced to 114 games, but he is expected to bounce back this season.