At first glance, sure, it feels strange: a team representing Japan is playing in the Caribbean Series, which is being held this year in Mexicali, Mexico, closer to the Gulf of California than the Caribbean.
Led by Nippon Professional Baseball hall of famer Alex Ramirez, a native of Venezuela who played 135 games in Major League Baseball with the Cleveland Indians and Pittsburgh Pirates before continuing his career in Japan, the team, known as the Japan Breeze, is the first entrant in the Caribbean Series from outside the Americas.
Largely comprised of players from Japan’s industrial leagues and independent minor leagues, the Japan Breeze was the opponent for the 2025 Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional (LVBP) All-Star Game, falling 3-1 but nonetheless holding the Venezuelan stars to three runs on four hits.
The Japan Breeze website is being renovated, so there isn’t much information available at the time of this writing on who might be on the roster, but a look at the players who appeared in the LVBP All-Star Game yields some information.
Pitching – Rintaro Hayama started the game for the Breeze, going three innings and allowing a hit and a walk, striking out four. Hayama, a native of Tokyo, has made sporadic appearances outside of Japan, making five starts in the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol with Oaxaca and Mexico City in 2022, throwing 19 innings with a WHIP of of 2.105 and a 7.57 ERA. This winter, he made three starts in Venezuela for the Tigres de Aragua, throwing 9 1/3 innings with an ERA of 4.82, walking three, and striking out four.
Three relievers – Isaki Ninomiya, Dai Kato, and Shinra Asano – posted shutout innings after Hayama left. Ninomiya made one start for Margarita of the LVBP this winter, going three innings and allowing five runs while notching five strikeouts. Kato has 21 1/3 innings of experience with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars minor league club, posting a 5.91 ERA in Japan’s Eastern League over 22 appearances from 2021-23. Asano threw 3 1/3 innings in relief for the Aguilas del Zulia this winter, allowing two earned runs, striking out four and walking two.
Yuki Sato was pinned with the loss in the All-Star Game, allowing two runs on one hit, striking out two, and walking two after coming on to pitch the seventh inning. He made one appearance in the LVBP this winter, throwing one inning for Caracas, allowing a walk and a solo homer.
Finishing out the game was Ryo Negishi, who made 19 appearances with the Caimanes de Barranquilla in the Liga Profesional de Beisbol Colombiano in 2023-24, throwing 24 innings with a sparkling 1.88 ERA, striking out 24 while walking nine.
At the Caribbean Series, each of the teams representing the leagues of the Confederacion de Beisbol Profesional del Caribe will have reinforced their staffs, and each will have several pitchers with Major League Baseball experience. It’s hard to tell, based on the small sample sizes, how effective these pitchers and others at a similar level will be at the Caribbean Series, but they’ll be facing lineups where three or four players have MLB experience, and others have played at the Triple-A or nearly equivalent levels.
Lineup – Takeru Ohashi led off for the Japan Breeze in the LVBP All-Star Game, filling the DH role. He played two seasons in the BayStars organization, never making the NPB’s top level, and batted .250/.351/.687 with one homer and five RBIs in 39 games with Quintana Roo of the LMB last year.
Hayatu Hirama, who played shortstop and batted seventh in the LVBP All-Star Game, played three seasons in the Yomiuri Giants organization, appearing in 166 games with the Giants Japanese Eastern League team, where he batted .302/.395/.368 in 85 games, hitting two homers and driving in 24 runs in 2021. He appeared in one game for the Giants NPB team that year but didn’t make a plate appearance. The following year, he regressed significantly, batting .209/.330/.291 in 72 games in the Japanese Eastern League, hitting three homers and driving in nine runs in 172 at-bats.
Outfielder Ren Tachioka, who batted ninth and played center field against the LVBP All-Stars, joined the Breeze after playing three seasons at the University of Southern Indiana. In 2024, he batted a scorching .363/.453/.421 in 49 games with the Screaming Eagles, going 69-for-140 with a homer and 23 RBIs.
The other eight players who batted for the Breeze against the LVBP All-Stars remain a mystery, at least as far as Baseball Reference is concerned.
Potential Reinforcements – A possible reinforcement for the Breeze is outfielder Taiki Sekine, who has 10 seasons of NPB experience with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars, including while Breeze manager Alex Ramirez was at the helm, and has played the last four winter seasons with the Yaquis de Obregon of the Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacifico. Sekine appeared in 28 games with the Yaquis this year, batting .271/.307/.336 in 107 at-bats with 10 RBIs. The problem for Sekine is that timing of the Caribbean Series approaches when he’d potentially have to report to the BayStars for spring training. Generally, players who appeared in any CBPC league for a team that has been eliminated are eligible to be signed as reinforcements in advance of the Caribbean Series, though if Ramirez wanted to keep an exclusively Japanese team for the Caribbean Series, he won’t find many players who meet that criteria to bring in as reinforcements.
Outlook – It’s hard to make a prognostication on a team where you don’t have a complete roster, and the players whose names you do have don’t seem to have any statistics in notable leagues.
That said, one of the old tropes that scouts will always toss out is that “there are no secrets in baseball.” Or any other sport, for that matter.
It’s certainly possible that the Japan Breeze will knock off one of the four champions of the CBPC’s leagues in Mexicali. They’d need to win at least two games to have a chance of making the Caribbean Series semifinals, and with the limited information available on the team – eight of 11 players who came to bat for the team are virtual unknowns – it’s really hard to see this team winning more than two games during pool play.
Japan Breeze Caribbean Series Schedule
All times Eastern Standard Time
All games broadcasted or streamed live on ESPN Deportes
February 1
3:50 p.m. – vs. Dominican Republic
February 2
3:50 p.m. – vs Puerto Rico
February 3
8 p.m. – vs. Mexico
February 4
10 p.m. – vs. Venezuela
