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The story
Keio University pitcher Hironari Hiroike (22) has decided to pursue a challenge in MLB without going through NPB if he isn’t drafted at the October 22 NPB Draft Meeting, Nikkan Sports reported. He throws a fastball topping out at 156 km/h (97 mph), and several US teams, including the Rangers and Yankees, are reportedly interested. His father is Koji Hiroike (53), general manager of the Seibu Lions, and if this comes to pass, he would follow fellow Keio alum Kotaro Tsunematsu (22), who signed with the Cubs last year, becoming the second straight year a Keio player has joined an MLB organization. On 5ch, discussion spread to cover the difficulty of challenging the majors without NPB experience, the attention drawn by his father’s position as a team executive, and the current struggles of Tsunematsu, who went to the US before him.
Nikkan Sports
[October 14, 2026, 4:55 AM]
It was learned on the 13th that Keio University pitcher Hironari Hiroike (senior = Keio), son of Seibu Lions general manager Koji Hiroike (53) and owner of a fastball that tops out at 156 km/h, has decided to pursue a challenge in MLB without going through NPB. If he is not drafted at the October 22 Draft Meeting, he will accelerate the move to the majors he has been harboring. Negotiations would come after the full official schedule concludes, but if realized, he would follow outfielder Kotaro Tsunematsu (22), who signed with the Cubs last year, as the second consecutive year a Keio player has joined an MLB organization. According to sources in the baseball world, several US teams have already shown interest, making his future moves one to watch closely.
Source: nikkansports.com / Original article here
What people said
That way you'll be set for life thanks to the seniority system
(∪^ω^) Woof woof!
＝ 〔~∪￣￣〕
＝ ◎――◎
That TDN guy made it to the majors in about two years though.
The only Japanese pitchers without NPB experience who've ever made it to the majors are probably Mac Suzuki, Tadano, and Tazawa.
And they were all first-round-pick caliber.
What about Roki Sasaki?
We'll talk after that.
→ "I was moved by GM Hiroike's persuasion, I'll sign with Seibu"
What are the odds of this actually happening?
In that case, Seibu would need to draft him in that year's draft.
Because NPB doesn't really "develop" players —
pitch-count management and position assignments are all one-sided.
Must be nice being a Keio kid.
Apparently he got married. Well, if you can afford to get married while still in the minors, he's probably got other options even if baseball doesn't pan out.
He broke his wrist this season and has
only played in 6 games.
He could just live comfortably with Seibu.
He's the key figure behind this year's Seibu resurgence on the front-office side.
Seems like a pretty capable guy.
Having a good playing record doesn't automatically mean you're good at the job either. He was probably just a competent professional in his own right.
The father himself hurt his shoulder and played as a fielder through high school, college, and corporate-league ball, yet still entered the pros as a pitcher.
If he hadn't hurt his shoulder, he might have become an incredible pitcher.
Who the heck is Iiyama?
Hiroike gives off a strong Hiroshima image, but
far from having no connection to Seibu,
he was actually a member of the Seibu Lions Fan Club
as a kid,
so he's basically one of the longest-standing Seibu Lions fans there is.
and Morii, who signed last year, is currently in a lower-level A-ball league.
If they don't produce results within a few years, they'll be cut.
It's not like they'll wait eight years for you the way they did for Neo.
—
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/日本人のマイナーリーグ選手一覧
① MLB — Ohtani, Yamamoto, Seiya, and others
② AAA — Chicago's Nishida (2023)
③ AA — Athletics' Tomioka (2020)
④ High-A — Seattle's Oyama Seiichiro (2025)
⑤ Low-A — Athletics' Morii (2025), San Diego's Moriki (2026, formerly Hanshin)
⑥ Rookie — Cubs' Tsunematsu (2025), Miami's Sasaki Rintaro (2026)
Is Nishida actually pretty amazing?
> Re: #41
> Is Nishida actually pretty amazing?
Nishida is definitely one of the success stories.
He went from Tohoku High School to a US college, then
got picked in the 11th round (329th overall) of the 2023 MLB Draft.
From there, he made it to the majors in just three years.
He's small (168cm/5'6"), but he probably got noticed for being able to play a
heads-up, detail-oriented brand of baseball.
They don't impose an obvious round cutoff,
but there's an atmosphere where the baseball team's pride makes them resist low-round or developmental picks.
Even though Kiyohara's son himself says he doesn't care about that,
the coach and the OBs (alumni) around him make a fuss about it — of course he doesn't get drafted.
That's probably why Tanida Seigo went undrafted too.
Giving up from the start and doing nothing, like us, is the real win.
There's no winning or losing.
In Dragon Quest terms, you're still level 1.
Still, that guy built his record as a pro first, so it's totally different.
As a reply to that post it works fine and isn't wrong.
Why is the Dodgers' Enriquez — a flamethrower on the level of Mizurowski (was that the name?) — stuck as like the 5th reliever in the bullpen?
If he's got heat like that, he should just learn three more pitches and start instead.
He's throwing 164 km/h (102 mph) without even trying hard.
Background and Key Points of This Topic
Among Japanese pitchers who went straight to the majors without going through NPB, only a handful — Mac Suzuki, Kazuhito Tadano, and Junichi Tazawa — actually managed to stick in MLB. Roki Sasaki, whose name came up in the thread, is a different case: he was posted after building a track record in NPB first, so the premise doesn’t match Hiroike’s situation. Meanwhile, Hiroike’s father, Koji Hiroike, is drawing attention less for his own playing record than for his reputation as the front-office figure credited with Seibu’s roster-building behind this season’s resurgence — turning jabs like “he got promoted despite a thin playing record” into, in effect, a fair acknowledgment of his front-office skill. The comparison repeatedly cited was Kotaro Tsunematsu (22), who signed a minor-league deal with the Cubs last year but has struggled this season — hitting .150 in just 6 games after a wrist fracture — serving as a recurring example of how hard it is to aim directly for the majors. The thread’s discussion settled into two overlapping threads: “how difficult it is to challenge MLB without going through NPB” and “this is a path only available because of his Keio background and family circumstances,” mixing genuine evaluation of his ability with pointed commentary on his social background.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geisoku Sokuho+) thread “Keio’s Hironari Hiroike leaning toward an MLB challenge, drawing interest from multiple teams including the Rangers and Yankees — following Keio alum Kotaro Tsunematsu (22), who signed with the Cubs last year.”
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