Hiromi Ito pitches for the Nippon Ham Fighters against the Orix Buffaloes in the opening game of the Pacific League Climax Series first stage at Es Con Field Hokkaido in Kitahiroshima, Hokkaido, on Oct. 11, 2025. (Kyodo)
TOKYO (Kyodo) — Nippon Ham Fighters right-hander Hiromi Ito has won the 2025 Eiji Sawamura Award, recognizing the most outstanding starting pitcher in Nippon Professional Baseball, for a stellar season in which he led both the Pacific and Central leagues with 195 strikeouts and 14 wins.
The 28-year-old was named a first-time winner of the award Monday after the selection committee shortlisted him with three others — the Hanshin Tigers’ Shoki Murakami, the DeNA BayStars’ Katsuki Azuma and the SoftBank Hawks’ Kohei Arihara.
Ito went 14-8 with a 2.52 ERA in 27 games for the PL’s Fighters, while also leading both leagues with six complete games and 196-2/3 innings pitched.
While all four candidates logged 14 wins, “Ito was number one in both leagues, numerically,” selection committee chairman Tsuneo Horiuchi said.
Ito becomes the first Sawamura recipient since Yoshinobu Yamamoto claimed his third straight in 2023, with no pitcher deemed to have met the stringent criteria to win the award last year.
While 15 wins is normally one of the seven benchmarks for the award, the committee commended Ito for passing its criteria for strikeouts, appearances and winning percentage.
The committee announced it will relax two of the requirements from next season, dropping the number of complete games from 10 to eight and innings pitched from 200 to 180, reflecting the evolving workload among starters and relievers in professional baseball.
AloJapan.com