Seibu Lions end 2025 on down note

 

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The 2025 Saitama Seibu Lions were officially eliminated in September, but a bad run in July sealed their fate.  Or was it other factors? 

At the end of the day, there was progress but we'll catch up with things that occurred in the last few months. 

Are the Lions back at square one?

The team looked competitive right before the All Star break hovering around .500.  However, it was a 4-16-1 July that buried the team for good.  A couple bad outings in Naha and the offense looked too similar to what we saw in 2024.

Staring pitching was elite, but it was the bullpen that kept the Lions ahead in close games when they had the lead.  They had a rare 27-22 winning record in one-run games in spite of a below average offense. 

There remains a lack of pop outside of Tyler Nevin.  Manaya Nishikawa and Seiya Watanabe were promising first half players, but they also cooled off like the rest of the team. 

The vibes are similar to the end of 2023, a flawed young group with potential building blocks having a good foreigner in Nevin, but who can hit domestically? It hasn't been enough to compete.  

But this second half of offense just leaves a bitter taste, including attending two consecutive shutout games in Chiba.  

Something positive we can mention is not being worried when Kona Takahashi will be posted in the offseason. He had a rebound season and the Lions starting pitching shouldn't be an issue. 

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Successful foreign signings weren't enough 

Tyler Nevin, Trey Wingenter and Emmanuel Ramirez are all returning for 2026 where Nevin and Wingenter were allowed to leave early at the conclusion of the final home game. 

Usually three foreign signings returning is good enough to make a competitive team right? Not the Lions.  It shows how bad the drafting and development of the position players have been since Shogo Akiyama left for the Cincinnati Reds.  There's players with flashes, but everyday starters? Not much on hitting.  The 1-0 loss in Chiba on 9/23 summed up the Lions in a nutshell, to load the bases with no outs on the 9th, only to squander it and lose being shutout.  

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Lions part ways with several 戦力外 (senryokugai)

The follow players were announced as being let go:

RHP Katsunori Hirai

RHP Yoshinobu Mizukami

RHP Ren Omagari*

RHP Hiroki Inoue*

LHP Takeru Sasaki

IF Teruki Koga

IF Kazuki Nomura*

IF Ryota Kawano*

OF Seiya Matsubara

OF Montell Higuma

OF Koichi Okumura

IF Kento Watanabe

*Denotes player was under Ikusei

Kento Watanabe was the former first round pick that has set back the team big-time. Others like Kawank, Inoue and Omagari have been under Ikusei for several years or dropped down from the roster. 

Hirai had an amazing 2019 before his arm was overshot and was a mainstay in the Lions bullpen for several years.  Mizukami was the PL rookie of the year in 2022, but struggled to keep his job with others emerging.  

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The Draft

The NPB Draft is this coming Thursday.  While there has been no public announcement at the time of this writing, the Lions have been linked to 3B Masahiro Tateishi out of Soka University. He is likely the most contested infielder in the class. The Hiroshima Carp already announced he will be their nomination earlier this month.  

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