Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks ace Livan Moinelo and Hanshin Tigers slugger Teruaki Sato were named the 2025 Pacific League and Central League Most Valuable Players, respectively, at Nippon Professional Baseball’s annual awards ceremony on Wednesday.
Moinelo made history as the first Cuban MVP in Japan and the first foreign MVP since former teammate Dennis Sarfate in 2017. In just his second year as a starter, he delivered a dominant season with an NPB-best 1.46 ERA, 210 ERA+, and 0.92 WHIP across 167 innings with 172 strikeouts.
The southpaw also had five games with double-digit punchouts, including a historic 18-strikeout masterpiece on June 6. PL home run king Franmil Reyes (Fighters) and batting champ Taisei Makihara (Hawks) rounded out the top three in the vote.
Sato became Hanshin’s first position-player MVP since 2005, blasting 40 homers and 102 RBIs while slashing .277/.356/.579 for a 186 OPS+ in 139 games. The third baseman also collected 34 doubles, 4 triples, 10 stolen bases, and 7.0 WAR. Hanshin swept the top of the CL ballot, with reliever Daichi Ishii, who posted a 0.17 ERA, finishing second and right-hander Shoki Murakami, who led the league in innings, in third.
The Rookie of the Year awards went to Misho Nishikawa (Marines) in the Pacific League and Kota Shoji (Swallows) in the Central.
Nishikawa struggled in the first month but rebounded to finish with a .281 average and 111 OPS+ in 108 games while leading NPB with 22 Defensive Runs Saved in left field. Right-hander Kota Tatsu (Fighters) and shortstop Rui Muneyama (Eagles) followed in the voting.
Shoji turned in a standout relief campaign with a 1.05 ERA, 0.84 WHIP, 28 holds, and a 33.1% strikeout rate over 42 ⅔ innings. His win marks the fifth time in the past six seasons that a relief pitcher has captured the ROY in at least one of the leagues. Left-hander Takato Ihara (Tigers) and catcher Yuta Ishii (Dragons) finished second and third.
