The 2024-25 Australian Baseball League season will start later this week and, as has been standard for most of the league's current incarnation, several NPB teams are sending players Down Under for the first half of the season. As usual I'm relying on
the WinterLeagueJP website for most of the following information.
Three members of the Yomiuri Giants will become Adelaide Giants for six weeks - Yuto Akihiro, Makoto Kyomoto and Ryusei Yamada.
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| 2023 Epoch One #216 |
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| 2022 BBM Rookie Edition #028 |
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| 2022 Epoch NPB #103 |
In addition to those three players, Adelaide will also have former Hiroshima Toyo Carp pitcher Oscar Nakaoshi on their roster. This will be the second straight season Oscar's been with Adelaide and his third season in the ABL - he was with Auckland for the 2022-23 season:
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| 2016 BBM Carp Autographed Edition #10 |
The Perth Heat will host Fumiya Kurokawa of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles:
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| 2020 Eagles Team Set 1st Version #72 |
The Melbourne Aces will have three players from the Orix Buffaloes on their roster - Taiki Ono, Kyosuke Saitoh and Taito Takashima:
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| 2023 BBM Buffaloes #B27 |
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| 2023 Epoch NPB Luxury Collection #03 |
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| 2024 Epoch NPB #194 |
The Yokohama DeNA Baystars are loaning Atsushi Katsumata to the Canberra Calvary:
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| 2019 BBM 1st Version #268 |
Canberra will also have another Japanese player - Ryo Kohigashi. As far as I can tell, he never played in NPB.
His listing on Baseball-Reference indicates his only pro experience was with Auckland two years ago (with Oscar) and with Quebec in the Frontier League this past summer.
The Chiba Lotte Marines will send five players to the Sydney Blue Sox - Shinya Matsuishi, Hikaru Ohtani, Ryusei Terachi, Daito Yamamoto and Yuto Yoshikawa:
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| 2024 BBM Rookie Edition #074 |
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| 2024 BBM Marines #M14 |
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| 2024 BBM 1st Version #216 |
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| 2023 BBM Marines #M67 |
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| 2023 Bowman NPB #BP-41 |
The Brisbane Bandits will be the only one of the six ABL teams to not have any NPB players (although they will have several CPBL and KBO players).
In addtion to Australia, a couple NPB teams have sent players to the Western hemisphere for the winter. Four teams in the Puerto Rican Winter League are getting players from Japan. The Fukuoka Softbank Hawks have sent two players to the Gigantes de Carolina - Haru Matsumoto and Fuga Ohtake:
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| 2023 Epoch Hawks Premier Edition #13 |
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| 2022 Epoch NPB #360 |
Those two Hawks players will have an additional Japanese teammate as Shintaro Fujinami, currently a free agent after spending this past season in the Mets farm system, is also on Carolina's roster:
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| 2021 Epoch One #144 |
The Dragons have sent Koji Fukutani to Leones de Ponce:
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| 2021 Calbee #OP-09 |
Junpei Azuma of the Baystars is spending his second straight off season abroad. He was with the Canberra Calvary last winter and he'll be with the Senadores de San Juan this year:
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| 2024 BBM Baystars #DB41 |
The Giants have sent Teppei Mataki and Yuhi Nishidata to Cangrejeros de Santurce:
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| 2024 Epoch NPB #112 |
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| 2024 BBM 2nd Version #428 |
The Baystars are also sending players to a third league and country this winter - the Mexican Pacific League. Haruhiro Hamaguchi and Taiga Kamichatani will spend part of the season with Algodoneros de Guasave. Hamaguchi spent last winter with Santurce in Puerto Rico:
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| 2023 Baystars Official Fan Cluib #26 |
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| 2020 Konami Baseball Collection #20200-N-DB027-00 |
And finally, Taiki Sekine will be returning to the Yaquis de Obregon for the third straight year (and fourth year since 2019):
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| 2024 Topps NPB #133 |
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