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The story
On the 17th, the Japan High School Baseball Federation announced that Yokohama High School’s ace right-hander Shoki Oda (3rd year) has been newly added to the list of players declaring their intent to turn pro. He’s the top right-handed pitching prospect at the high school level, having hit a personal-best 157 km/h (about 97.5 mph) at this summer’s Kanagawa tournament, and has appeared at Koshien four tournaments running since the spring of his sophomore year. On the thread, rumors flew about a bidding war among MLB teams led by the Dodgers, while cooler heads argued that going through NPB first pays better in signing bonus and salary, and that a direct jump before age 25 — like Roki Sasaki’s — is the exception rather than the rule.
Sponichi [September 17, 2026, 17:11]
On the 17th, the Japan High School Baseball Federation released a new list of players declaring their intent to go pro, adding Yokohama High School’s (Kanagawa) 157 km/h right-hander Shoki Oda (3rd year), a projected first-round pick in this fall’s draft.
Born in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture. He’s led Yokohama to four straight Koshien appearances since the spring of his sophomore year, when the team won the title, and set a personal best of 157 km/h at this summer’s Kanagawa tournament — making him the country’s top right-handed pitching prospect at the high school level.
Source: sponichi.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Wait, you're making him join the Zombies? lol
I burst out laughing at that
Oda's actually a SoftBank Hawks fan though lol
If the Dodgers are already eyeing him, he's the real deal.
But his body's still that of a high schooler, so he'll probably be stashed in the minors for 3-5 years.
Those are the deadweight teams of the Central and Pacific Leagues though
Did Masumi Kuwata actually file this properly back in his day?
That system didn't exist back then
No fine control to speak of.
He gets strikeouts by leaving pitches up in the zone.
I think he'll get hit hard once he's in pro ball.
When a former student breaks out big, the coach gets treated as the 'mentor,' gets interview requests, and money rolls in too,
so of course he's hoping the kid succeeds.
Doesn't the player usually slip the coach a few million yen as a thank-you gift when he gets drafted?
and claw his way up from the minors.
Going to SoftBank would probably suck though,
since it'd take forever to reach free agency.
I doubt he really gets what the minors are like. Kids these days would probably fall apart just from not having a Washlet (heated bidet toilet seat).
Going through the Fighters on the way to the majors would be fine, right?
He's actually a SoftBank fan though lol
Yokohama High → Nippon-Ham → SoftBank —
same route as Kensuke Kondoh, huh
He'd get drafted, but the salary might be tough to swallow
Once a precedent is set, the majors will start taking all the top prospects and NPB will be left hollowed out.
Huh? You need to file a pro-intent declaration even to sign with MLB, you know.
That's why even Shohei Ohtani, who never intended to join NPB, still submitted one.
Some clubs will go after Taisei Suzuki instead.
He's not Taro Yamada from Dokaben — you're not going to see something like 10 teams competing over one guy.
Even in Dokaben, which is pure fiction, Ganki's lottery — separate from Yamada's own — still ended up split between Manager Oh and Manager Nagashima.
Front-office executives and scouts from all 18 MLB teams reportedly watched Oda pitch intently from behind the backstop in Taiwan, but
'His mind is already pretty much made up — he's headed for the Dodgers,' one Central League scout went on to say.
'In Taiwan, besides several Dodgers scouts including front-office executives, there was also an ad-agency figure known to be close with Dodgers management.
That's the same person who worked behind the scenes when Roki Sasaki (24) chose the Dodgers. There's even a rumor the Dodgers have lined up a signing bonus north of 500 million yen, plus an interpreter.
I hear the Yankees, who were keen at one point, are now in retreat mode.'
With a big enough signing bonus, you can actually afford to cover your own meals and hire personal staff.
Roki Sasaki's signing bonus was 1 billion yen, with a salary of 120 million yen since he's under 25.
That '500 million yen' figure is just within the usual range of Nikkan Gendai's speculation.
What Gendai's article is really getting at is: 'What if an international draft were introduced?
If he ended up subject to that kind of waiver system, he might not get anywhere near 500 million yen.'
Feels like it could turn into 'okay, we've had enough Japanese players already.'
Before any of that, the real question is whether he can even make it to the majors, so it won't even get that far.
That kind of talk only starts mattering once he's put up good numbers in Triple-A at the very least.
Ohtani and Sasaki already set the precedent of posting after just a few years.
This guy's bound to bring it up too.
If he's no use for the first two years and really only has three good years in him, it'd be smarter to pass.
That's not right.
For a player, there's a world of difference between signing before turning 25 and after.
Under-25 Roki Sasaki could only land a max salary of 120 million yen, yet he chose MLB anyway.
Had he waited until 25, he could've gotten a multi-year deal worth 3 billion yen or more.
Well, that just shows how badly he wanted out of the Lotte Marines.
If the relationship hadn't soured, it wouldn't have played out that way.
Sasaki's case was the exception.
✕ 'too close a contract'
✓ 'too different a contract' [correcting a typo from the post above]
Under the rules, you simply can't land a big-money contract before turning 25.
Demanding a posting before 25, like Sasaki did, isn't normally a thing.
Standing next to that Korean pitcher, Oda doesn't even look much shorter.
Background and Key Points
The “pro-intent declaration” is a document required under Japan’s Student Baseball Charter: high school and university players must file it with the Japan High School Baseball Federation before they can have any contact with a professional club — not just NPB teams, but MLB teams as well. The “no big-money contract before age 25” rule discussed on the thread comes from MLB’s current international signing regulations; Roki Sasaki’s posting from the Chiba Lotte Marines under that cap is widely cited as the exceptional case that it is. It’s also worth noting that specific figures like a “500-million-yen signing bonus” come from speculative reporting in the sports tabloids, not information the clubs have confirmed officially. Staying in NPB tends to mean an easier path to money and fame, while jumping straight to the majors means facing minor-league competition at a young age — which is why the thread was split over which route actually pays off.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5channel (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “MLB Also Watching: Yokohama’s 157 km/h Righty Shoki Oda Files Pro-Intent Declaration, Clearing Him to Meet with Teams in Japan and the US.”
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