MLB's post-season started this past week and four teams - the Orioles, Brewers, Braves and Astros - have already been eliminated. I thought I'd do a quick post about the members of the remaining eight teams that have a chance to join the fairly exclusive club of players who have won a championship in both NPB and MLB. I believe there are five players in total (in MLB anyway. I think the only player on an NPB playoff team who has won an MLB championship is Dallas Keuchel of the Marines).
Let's go through the players in order of most recent championships. A note before we begin - BBM used to do a box set for each year's Nippon Series that would have been perfect for this post but, unfortunately, they stopped doing it after 2012. As a result, only one of the cards I'm about to show is from one of those sets. The other cards are each from the year the player was on the Nippon Series winning team (or for one player, it's the most recent year he won the Series).
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Dodger - 2022 Orix Buffaloes
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| 2022 Epoch NPB #223 |
Kodai Senga, Mets - 2015, 2017-20 Fukuoka Softbank Hawks
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| 2020 BBM 1st Version #035 |
Robert Suarez, Padres - 2019 Fukuoka Softbank Hawks
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| 2019 BBM Hawks #H36 |
Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers - 2016 Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
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| 2016 Calbee #T-03 |
Yu Darvish, Padres - 2006 Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
A couple quick notes: Technically both Senga and Suarez were with the Hawks in other years that they won the Series but I didn't include them since they didn't play in those Series. If the Dodgers win, Ohtani will be the second player from the 2016 Fighters to win in both leagues as Chris Martin won a World Series with the Braves in 2021. Should either the Dodgers or Padres win the World Series, they'll be only the third MLB team after the 1978 Yankees and 2007 Red Sox to have two players on the list.
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