The Los Angeles Dodgers have invested in becoming THE MLB franchise in Japan over the past couple of decades, and it has paid dividends in the 2020s.
The Dodgers have a long history of scouting talent in Japan, which has helped usher them into the MLB and made them feel at home and comfortable on the team.
They have grown their Japanese fanbase as a result, leading sponsors and talent like Roki Sasaki and Yoshinobu Yamamoto to circle the Dodgers as a team they want to play for.
With Sasaki, Yamamoto, and Shohei Ohtani, three Japanese megastars, the Dodgers are a true destination and favorite to sign any Japanese free agent that they aggressively pursue.
Yamamoto and Ohtani were both part of the 2026 Samurai Japan squad, and considering how much their profiles have been raised since becoming Dodgers players, the rest of the Japanese roster was no doubt asking about life with the Dodgers.
Here are some Japanese players that the Japanese duo could have been recruiting to continue developing the talent from Japan:
Teruaki Sato
Sato is the best non-MLB bat in Japan’s lineup, having secured a breakout season in 2025. He hit 40 home runs, drove in 102 runs, and had an OPS of .924.
He fits a similar mold to Munetaka Murakami, who signed with the White Sox, with good power but a good number of strikeouts from his aggressive slugging approach.
Sato can hit balls hard on a regular basis, but his third base defense is nothing to write home about.
As Max Muncy ages, Sato could come into play as a promising slugger who is only 27 years old. He slashed .300/.417/.600 during the WBC in a promising showing, considering he did not homer, but remained effective.
Hiroto Takahashi
Takahashi is one of the more promising arms out of Japan. Per Baseball America’s Geoff Pontes, he is still two years away from being posted by Chunichi.
However, he has four pitches in his mix: a four-seam fastball, cutter, curveball, and splitter. His heater sits at 94-95 mph, though it lacks the spin needed to generate whiffs, according to Pontes.
If he can get it to rotate more and make hitters whiff, he could be a potential top-of-the-line starter, considering he has good command, and all of his secondary pitches do get bats to miss.
He is only 23 years old, and Takashi has until 2028 to really get his fastball moving. If the righty does, he could come into the league between Tatsuya Imai and Yamamoto.
In his one start for Japan, Takahashi pitched 4.2 innings and allowed just two hits, one walk, and got five punchouts, making his presence known on such a big stage.
Hiromi Itoh
Itoh won Japan’s equivalent of the Cy Young Award in 2025 with a seven-pitch mix: a four-seamer, two-seamer, slider, splitter, curveball, cutter, and changeup.
He is a crafty pitcher who is undersized at 5-foot-9 inches, with quality stuff and savvy in his pitch mix, similar to Yamamoto. Itoh put up a 2.52 ERA and led the league with 195 strikeouts over 196.2 innings.
His fastball, however, is only 92-94 mph, but its shape, per Pontes, makes it more effective than one would expect.
During the WBC, he struggled, allowing five runs over four innings of work. He got seven strikeouts and allowed four hits with no walks.
His command is quite good, and an AL scout told ESPN’s Jorge Castillo that Itoh would be a “high-end” free agent in MLB.
Hiroya Miyagi
The Dodgers can use a quality lefty pitcher to add to the rotation in the coming years, and Miyagi may end up as a possible back-end-of-the-rotation option.
Miyagi is only 5-foot-7, 182 pounds, but he has quality stuff and location with his pitch mix. His fastball is only around 90 mph, but it gets a high percentage of ground balls, while his slider, splitter, and changeup combination is well mixed.
He is one of a few pitchers on the Japanese team who have good-to-elite command, a nice mix of pitches, and lack the lights-out stuff, but can be quality starting pitchers in the major leagues, potentially even better if they make a developmental leap.
His effectiveness was on full display in the WBC, allowing no hits, two walks, and four strikeouts over 3.1 innings, out-pitching more season pitchers.
Castillo compared Miyagi to Framber Valdez, who just got paid by the Detroit Tigers, and that kind of pitcher would be a boon for the Dodgers.
