NPB’s Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters To Post Hiromi Itoh

The Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball have announced that they will make right-hander Hiromi Itoh available to MLB clubs via the posting system. Once the posting paperwork is finalized, Itoh will have 45 days to sign with a major league club. That clock would be paused if Itoh doesn’t sign before the lockout starts on December 1st. This was the expected outcome, as it was reported back in March that the Fighters planned to post Itoh this offseason. The 29-year-old Itoh has thrown just over 1,000 innings for the Fighters dating back to his 2021 debut season. All but three of his 152 appearances have been starts. Itoh has a career 2.92 earned run average and leads all qualified NPB starters with 902 strikeouts in the past six years. Shosei Togo is a distant second with 758 strikeouts. Itoh’s best season came in 2025. He pitched 196 2/3 innings across 27 starts, averaging just over 7 1/3 innings per start. He led NPB with 195 strikeouts, while his 20.8% K-BB rate was a career-best figure by several points and second-best in the league. Itoh also induced ground balls at a strong 43.5% clip and tossed six complete games, including one shutout. His efforts that year earned him the Sawamura Award (Japan’s equivalent of the Cy Young Award), cementing Itoh as the best pitcher across both the Central and Pacific Leagues. Itoh was not quite as dominant in 2026, but he was still plenty effective. He pitched 172 2/3 innings over 26 starts with a 3.18 ERA and 159 strikeouts, the latter being the third-highest figure in NPB. Itoh’s 4.7% walk rate was elite, while his strikeout rate dropped from 24.5% in 2025 to 21.8% this year. That put him in the middle of the pack among 36 qualified NPB starters. Itoh is listed at 5’9″ and 180 pounds, which is a bit undersized for a major league starter. Sports Illustrated puts his fastball in the low-90s range while noting its vertical break and high spin. Meanwhile, Yakyu Cosmopolitan paints Itoh as something of a Yu Darvish type, as Itoh uses over ten unique pitch grips including a splitter, sinker, sweeper, curveball, and changeup behind the four-seamer. If he signs with a big league club, Itoh could have some upside as a mid-rotation arm. ESPN’s Jorge Castillo, writing back in March, cited one American League evaluator who felt Itoh could be a “high-end” free agent. A helpful recent comp could be right-hander Tatsuya Imai. He made the jump to the Majors last offseason and was projected for a six-year, $150MM deal here at MLBTR. Imai ended up with the Astros on a three-year, $54MM pact, falling well short of expectations. He then posted a 4.93 ERA in 76 2/3 innings while struggling with injuries, walks, and eventually getting demoted to the bullpen. Itoh has better control than Imai did in NPB, but he also doesn’t throw as hard and is more of a finesse pitcher with a tendency for ground balls. It remains to be seen how that will be valued in MLB. So far, the Giants are among the clubs known to be interested in Itoh. They lack experienced starters behind Logan Webb and Landen Roupp, so they could be a good fit if Itoh wants to establish himself in the big leagues as a starter. Under the current collective bargaining agreement, whoever signs Itoh must pay the Fighters a posting fee of 20% of the first $25MM of his Major League contract, 17.5% of the next $25MM, and 15% of anything beyond the $50MM mark. The exact figures are subject to change in the next CBA. Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images