Nippon Professional Baseball announced its 2024 season awards, including the Best Nine, Most Valuable Player, and Rookie of the Year. Let’s find out who won!
Most Valuable Player
As expected, MVP honors went to players from pennant-winning teams: Tomoyuki Sugano of the Yomiuri Giants in the Central League, and Kensuke Kondoh of the SoftBank Hawks in the Pacific League.
Sugano, 35, had a bounce-back season for the ages, going 15-3 with a 1.67 ERA and 111 strikeouts in 156.2 IP en route to his third career MVP. His 176 ERA+ ranked second in NPB among qualifiers, only behind Hiroto Takahashi (Dragons). It was the third MVP of his decorated career (2014, 2020). Now that he’s a free agent, the veteran right-hander hopes to sign a Major League deal this offseason after previously testing the MLB market in 2020. He’s expected to draw significant interest on a short-term deal.
Kondoh, 31, finally won an MVP after many elite seasons with the Fighters and Hawks. He slashed .314/.439/.521 in 129 games with 29 doubles, 19 home runs, 72 RBI, and 11 steals, leading the PL with a staggering 192 OPS+. He also played excellent left field defense with 21 Defensive Runs Saved. Kondoh is widely considered to be the best non-MLB player in the world, and will likely remain in Japan for his entire career after inking a seven-year contract with SoftBank in December 2022.
Rookie of the Year
Yomiuri Giants reliever Hiromasa Funabasama and Seibu Lions southpaw Natsuki Takeuchi took home the ROY in their respective leagues.
Not many players stood out in the CL rookie class this year, but Funabasama’s 2.37 ERA in 51 appearances was deemed worthy of the award. He’s the fifth relief pitcher in NPB since 2020 to win the ROY. Takeuchi, one of the top prospects of the 2023 Draft, ran away with the award after posting a 10-6 record and 2.17 ERA over 145.1 frames. For those that follow college baseball, he pitched in North Carolina for the Japanese collegiate all-star team against the USA last year.
Sawamura
The Sawamura Award committee, which consists of five former players, determined that no pitcher was worthy of the award this year. Shosei Togo and Kohei Arihara were finalists but did not satisfy enough of the seven traditional criteria (15 wins, 150 strikeouts, 10 complete games, sub-2.50 ERA, 200 innings pitched, 25 games started, .600 winning percentage). Many younger fans have been pushing for the criteria to be updated to better reflect the modern game. Yoshinobu Yamamoto had previously won the award in three consecutive years, from 2021 to 2023. This was the first time since 2019 that NPB declared no Sawamura winner.
Best Nine
P: Kohei Arihara (Hawks)
C: Toshiya Satoh (Marines)
1B: Hotaka Yamakawa* (Hawks)
2B: Hiroto Kobukata* (Eagles)
3B: Ryoya Kurihara* (Hawks)
SS: Kenta Imamiya (Hawks)
OF: Ryosuke Tatsumi* (Eagles)
OF: Kensuke Kondoh (Hawks)
OF: Ukyo Shuto* (Hawks)
DH: Franmil Reyes (Fighters)
P: Tomoyuki Sugano* (Giants)
C: Yuudai Yamamoto* (BayStars)
1B: Kazuma Okamoto* (Giants)
2B: Naoki Yoshikawa* (Giants)
3B: Munetaka Murakami (Swallows)
SS: Hideki Nagaoka (Swallows)
OF: Domingo Santana (Swallows)
OF: Seiya Hosokawa (Dragons)
OF: Koji Chikamoto* (Tigers)
* Also won Golden Glove Award
Bonus: Fielding Bible
Check out SIS Baseball’s Fielding Bible Award winners, recognizing the best defensive players in NPB! I’ve been a voter for the past two years. Chusei Mannami took home Defensive Player of the Year honors for the second straight season.
- NPB Standings
- Central League Hitting Leaders
- Central League Pitching Leaders
- Pacific League Hitting Leaders
- Pacific League Pitching Leaders
- Yuri’s NPB Pitcher Rankings
- Yakyu Cosmopolitan’s Website
