2026 Spring Training Camp in Okinawa

Like many others, we are most looking forward to seeing our two ace pitchers, Hiroto Takahashi and Yumeto Kanemaru.
Adding excitement would be seeing this year’s first-round draft pick, Masaki Nakanishi, and Yuta Matsukihira establish themselves in the rotation.
Also, I’m looking forward to seeing veteran pitchers like Yudai Ono and Takahiro Matsuba deliver wins with that seasoned touch. Regarding Matsuba, he was a first-round draft pick for the Orix Buffaloes. We havde had high hopes for him since he transferred to the Dragons. He’s undoubtedly a great pitcher.

Hideaki Wakui held an autograph session as a fan service event at the Oki-Ham Yomitan Heiwa no Mori Baseball Stadium.
Yuya Yanagi is also still going strong.
They both have good ball control, so they still have the potential to become rotation pitchers.

We also want Kyle Muller, Reia Nakachi, and Sho Kusaka to compete for spots in the starting rotation.

The most crucial role in modern baseball is the closer.
Our closer is Shinya Matsuyama, but he spent about a month and a half on the disabled list last year. When such a situation occurs, we wonder who would be the replacement closer. Would the new foreign pitcher, Albert Abreu, be the candidate ?

Last year, we were often made a comeback in the eighth inning, so we think relief pitchers who can be trusted with the eighth inning are also important.

For the Dragons, the most important factor is not just home runs, but increasing their scoring ability.
That means not only home runs and hits, but sacrifice hits are also important. In other words, Dragons needs hitting that reliably scores runs when scoring opportunities arise.

The core of the lineup is undoubtedly Seiya Hosokawa. One concern is that his RBI total hasn’t matched his home run numbers so far. This year, we expect his home run numbers to increase, but we’re really counting on him to drive in runs consistently.

The leadoff hitter should be Okabayashi. If he can get through the season injury-free, his numbers will naturally follow.

We are also excited about new foreign player Miguel Sano. Last year, Aristides Aquino who was expected to be a power hitter struggled.
We believe that if Sano performs as expected, the Dragons will hold the fate of the pennant race.

We don’t know whether Jason Vosler and Seiji Uebayashi will be regular starters or will change based on performance or the opposing pitcher. But in either case, we feel we can expect good results this year.
In fact, it feels like the team’s depth is growing stronger.

Personally, I’m really looking forward to seeing Hiroki Fukunaga. He couldn’t play last year due to injury, but we believe he has the potential to hit 30 home runs and maintain a .280 batting average.
However, if his main position is second base, Manager Inoue has mentioned wanting to use Mikiya Tanaka, so Fukunaga might end up as a backup. Ideally, I’d like them to consider him at third base too.

We are wondering why Okabayashi spent so much time practicing second base defense with Kawasaki as his temporary coach at this year’s camp.
Perhaps there’s some hint for improvement for Okabayashi.