Top NPB slugger Teruaki Sato set to test MLB market

Teruaki Sato, Japanese baseball’s top slugger, will attempt to move to MLB through the posting system this offseason, the Hanshin Tigers announced on Monday.

“We will support Teruaki Sato’s long-held wish to take on the challenge of playing in MLB next season,” general manager Satoshi Shimamura said during a news conference, according to Sports Nippon. “In other words, the team will approve his posting this offseason.”

Sato, the reigning Central League MVP and presumptive favorite for the award this year, won the CL Triple Crown this season with a .306 average, 39 home runs and 106 RBIs. He is one of just nine players to win a Triple Crown in NPB and the first since 2022, when Munetaka Murakami, who just completed his first season in MLB with the Chicago White Sox, achieved the feat.

The 27-year-old, who bats from the left side, also led the CL with a .991 on-base plus slugging percentage and with 40 doubles while playing in all 143 games for Hanshin.

Defensively, Sato played 125 games at third base and made 18 appearances in the outfield.

“I am grateful to the team for accepting my request,” Sato said in a statement released through the Tigers.

If Sato successfully makes the move, he will join two other recent CL sluggers in MLB after Murakami and the Toronto Blue Jays’ Kazuma Okamoto made the jump during the previous offseason.

Sato will be entering the market at a time of uncertainty, as MLB appears headed for a lockout when the current collective bargaining agreement between the league and the Major League Baseball Players Association expires on Dec. 1.

The usual period for NPB teams to officially make players available to MLB clubs is from Nov. 1 to Dec. 5. The player then has a 45-day window to sign with an MLB club or return to his NPB team.

The looming work stoppage may encourage the Tigers and Sato and his representatives to start the clock sooner rather than later.​

Shimamura cited Sato’s contributions to the Tigers as a reason for the team approving the move.

Four teams named Sato, who hails from Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, where Hanshin’s Koshien Stadium is located, as their top pick in the 2020 draft, with the Tigers winning the lottery for his rights.

He quickly showed his slugging prowess with a 24-homer season as a rookie and steadily made improvements as a hitter. Sato has a .271 career average and has hit 163 home runs in six seasons. He has hit at least 20 home runs in five of his six seasons, including a career-best 40 in 2025.

During his time with the Hanshin, Sato helped the Tigers win three CL pennants and the 2023 Japan Series title, the club’s first since 1985.

“He helped the team win three pennants in six seasons, I’m really glad he was with us,” Shimamura said during his news conference.​

This year, he became the first Tigers player to win the Triple Crown since Randy Bass in 1986 and the first Japanese player to achieve the feat for the club.

Sato could be among the top available hitters in a free agent market that might not have as many big names as in other seasons. He has been firmly on the radar of several MLB teams, with scouts flocking to Tigers games this season.