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A total of 81 Japanese-born [1] [2] players have played in at least one Major League Baseball (MLB) game. Of these players, eleven are on existing MLB rosters.The first instance of a Japanese player playing in MLB occurred in 1964, when the Nankai Hawks, a Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) team, sent three exchange prospects to the United States to gain experience in MLB's minor league system.
In the weeks leading up to the official opening on Wednesday, the 2025 international signing period was predominantly discussed in relation to the free agency of Japanese pitching phenom Roki Sasaki.
Japan has a rich, layered baseball history, but until 1995, only one Japanese-born and -raised player had ever reached Major League Baseball. That trailblazer was Masanori Murakami.
As such, player representation by birth spans to 25 countries as of the 2022 MLB season, with the United States topping the list at 1,057 players called up to 26-man rosters. [9] The most represented overseas country is the Dominican Republic, with 171 players called up to 26-man rosters. [9]
To discourage players from leaving to play in North America, or to at least compensate teams that lose players, Japanese baseball and MLB agreed on a posting system for players under contract. MLB teams wishing to negotiate with a player submit bids for a "posting fee", which the winning MLB team would pay the Japanese team if the player signs ...
Sasaki helped Japan win the 2023 World Baseball Classic. His fastball has been clocked at 102.5 mph, and he has a 29-15 career record with a 2.10 ERA over four injury-shortened seasons with the ...
Roki Sasaki (Japanese: 佐々木 朗希, Hepburn: Sasaki Rōki, born November 3, 2001), nicknamed "the Monster of the Reiwa Era" (令和の怪物, Reiwa no Kaibutsu), is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB).
Sasaki’s career stats make for even better reading, with the so-called “Monster of the Reiwa Era” recording an ERA of just 2.02, picking up 524 strikeouts in 414 2/3 innings.