[NPB NOTEBOOK] Marines Sign Shuta Ishikawa to Bolster Their Rotation

Looking to fill the void when Roki Sasaki signs with a team in Major League Baseball, the Chiba Lotte Marines announced the signing of veteran right-handed pitcher Shuta Ishikawa on Wednesday, December 11.

The 32-year-old Ishikawa exercised his domestic free agent status after eight seasons with the Pacific League's Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.

Ishikawa negotiated with five clubs and Lotte was able to sign the Tokyo native.

"I'm determined to fight to win the league championship and win the Japan Series title," Ishikawa said in a statement released by the Marines.

Ishikawa went 7-2 this season with a 2.56 ERA and 52 strikeouts in 15 games for the Hawks, who lost to the Yokohama DeNA BayStars in six games in the 2024 Japan Series.

Ishikawa pitched Game 4 of the Japan Series. He struck out four batters and gave up one run on four hits over 5⅔ innings.

DeNA won 5-0, scoring four runs in the seventh inning after Ishikawa had left the game.

Solid Numbers for Shuta Ishikawa in NPB

Over eight seasons with the Hawks, Ishikawa has a career win-loss record of 56-41 with a 3.32 ERA and 712 strikeouts in 822 innings. He also tossed a no-hitter against the Saitama Seibu Lions in August 2023.

Under manager Masato Yoshii, the Marines finished third in the PL standings this season.

Ishikawa will join a team that is in need of starting pitchers. Only two pitchers this season had 10 or more wins for Lotte: Sasaki with 10 and Kazuya Ojima with 12.

Sasaki will be tough, if not impossible, to replace.

Even though he missed large chunks of the season due to injury issues, Sasaki was the face of the franchise.

Sasaki had a career-high 10 wins against five losses with a 2.35 ERA in 18 games for Lotte in 2024.

On April 10, 2022, Sasaki became the youngest pitcher in NPB history to throw a perfect game at 20 years, five months. He struck out 19 batters, including a record-breaking 13 in a row.

Ever since that game, Sasaki has been on the radar of MLB teams. More than 20 of them have contacted his agent Joel Wolfe to express their interest in negotiating for the hard-throwing right-hander.

Murakami Moving on in 2026

Tokyo Yakult Swallows slugger Munetaka Murakami says he will spend one more season with the Central League team before pursuing a career in MLB in 2026.

"It will be my final season in Japan, and I'm only thinking about producing results and winning the championship," Murakami said, according to Kyodo News.

Murakami signed for an estimated ¥600 million JPY ($3.9 million USD) for 2025, the final year of his three-year deal with the Swallows.

After winning the Central League Triple Crown in 2022, Yakult promised Murakami that he would be posted for a move to MLB after three more seasons with the Tokyo-based team.

The 24-year-old third baseman led the Central League with 33 home runs in 2024 while batting .244 for the fifth-place Swallows.

Over seven seasons with the Swallows, Murakami has a career .270 batting average with 224 homers and 600 RBIs.

Aoyagi Testing the Waters

Hanshin Tigers right-handed pitcher Koyo Aoyagi is also pursuing a career in MLB.

Aoyagi was posted by the Tigers on Wednesday, December 4 and has 45 days to negotiate a deal with an MLB team.

Should a deal be reached with an MLB team, a posting fee will be paid to Hanshin based on the total amount he is guaranteed in his signing bonus and salary.

The 31-year-old Aoyagi led the CL in wins (13) in both 2021 and 2022 ― he shared the league lead in '21 with Aren Kuri of the Hiroshima Carp. He went 8-6 with a 4.57 ERA in 2023 but just 2-3 with a 3.69 ERA this season.

"It's starting to sink in that I am entering the negotiating period," Aoyagi said, according to Kyodo News. "I'm grateful to the club for backing my endeavor."

Dice-K Praises International Competition

Former NPB and MLB standout pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka has spoken about the value of international play and how it had a big impact on his career.

In an interview with the World Baseball and Softball Confederation during the recently completed Premier12 tournament, Matsuzaka spoke at length about his international career.

In addition to starring for both the Seibu Lions and Boston Red Sox, Matsuzaka also had an illustrious international career.

Before signing a six-year contract worth $52 million (nearly ¥8 billion with the current exchange rate) with the Red Sox, Matsuzaka impressed the world by leading Japan to the first World Baseball Classic title in 2006. He earned MVP honors in that tournament.

"Winning the World Baseball Classic in the US with Samurai Japan is much more relevant than being named the MVP," Matsuzaka said. "I started the championship game, but it was a team win. I believe that is significant."

But his impressive performance in the inaugural WBC wasn't his first taste of international competition.

"I represented Japan for the first time in junior high school," he said through a translator. "That experience really taught me to work harder and train harder."

Added the Tokyo native, "That would eventually lead to being in the [2004 Athens] Olympics and playing professional baseball in Japan and the US. That experience made me look forward to representing Japan internationally again."

Matsuzaka was Motivated to Play for the National Team

Looking back on his career, Matsuzaka said, "I always aimed to be selected for the national team because I realized that playing internationally, I would experience something I would not have the possibility to see playing in Japanese baseball. 

"Playing internationally has helped me adjust to the different styles of baseball."

Now 44, Matsuzaka spends much of his time as a baseball analyst on Japanese TV.

RELATED:

• [NPB NOTEBOOK] Sugano and Kondoh Receive MVP Honors in Their Respective Leagues
• New Japanese Baseball Travel Guide is a Useful Reference for Fans
• [JAPAN SPORTS NOTEBOOK] Roki Sasaki on the Move to MLB

Author: Jim Armstrong

The author is a longtime journalist who has covered sports in Japan for over 25 years. You can find his articles on SportsLook.