Teruaki Sato of the Tigers is leading the Central League in home runs right now and it's not a close race at the moment. Sato has 12 home runs and the two players tied for second - Sato's teammate Shota Morishita and Shugo Maki of the Baystars - have seven apiece. He's also three home runs ahead of the two players tied for the Pacific League lead - Chusei Mannami and Franmil Reyes of the Fighters. Sato is also leading the CL in RBI with 34 although Morishita is only two behind him and Maki and Shota Suekane of the Carp are each three behind him.
It's a major turnaround for a player who a year ago had been banished to the farm team for three weeks after misplaying a bunt that lead to a late-inning loss to the Dragons. I had seen the Tigers' ni-gun team play Hayate in Shizuoka a year ago Friday and was surprised to see him with them. He was back with the top team by mid-June and played regularly to the end of the season. He played in 120 games, hitting .268 with a career low 16 home runs. With 12 home runs already this year, he's halfway to his career high of 24 home runs which he did in both 2021 and 2023.
Here's his rookie card from the 2021 BBM Tigers set (#T48):
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