The Fukuoka Softbank Hawks traded infielder Richard Sunagawa to Yomiuri Giants for first baseman and outfielder Yuto Akihiro and left-handed pitcher Ryusei Ohe on May 11, per Yakyu Cosmopolitan.
The SoftBank Hawks are trading 1B/3B Richard Sunagawa to the Yomiuri Giants in exchange for 1B/OF Yuto Akihiro and LHP Ryusei Ohe.
Richard, 25, has hit 94 HR on the farm since 2020 but has struggled in NPB. Akihiro, 22, has a career 103 wRC+ in NPB.
— Yakyu Cosmopolitan (@yakyucosmo) May 12, 2025
Sunagawa, 25, is a right-handed hitter, and he made his Nippon Professional Baseball debut with the Softbank Hawks in 2021. He showed a lot of promise for the Softbank Hawks in their farm system, playing in the Western League, where he won the Western League Outstanding Player of the Year Award in 2020. Sunagawa led the league in home runs for four straight years from 2020-2023, and he led the league in RBIs three years in this span. His best season in the Western League was in 2022 when he had a career high 29 home runs, 84 RBI, and an OPS of .910.
This season, he only played six games with the Softbank Hawks in the NPB’s Pacific League, and he had two doubles and four RBI in 22 at-bats. His career numbers in the NPB are 10 home runs, 27 RBIs, and an OPS of .518 in 282 at-bats. The Yomiuri Giants likely hope that a change of scenery could resurrect his NPB career.
Akihiro, 22, is a left-handed hitter, and he made his NPB debut with the Yomiuri Giants in 2021. His best season was in 2023, when he had 10 home runs, 41 RBIs, and a slash line of .273/.401/.318 in 406 at-bats. In 2024, he also played in the Australian Baseball League with the Adelaide Giants, where he hit two home runs, eight RBI, and an OPS of .840 in 84 at-bats.
Ohe, 26, is a lefty specialist out of the bullpen, and he made his NPB debut with the Yomiuri Giants in 2019. This season, he’s thrown 14 1/3 innings, notching 16 strikeouts and a 4.40 ERA. In total, he’s thrown 122 innings with the Giants in his career with 94 strikeouts, and an ERA of 3.75.
