NPB Player Movement Database

Tomohisa Ohzeki entered professional baseball through the servants' entrance: the 2019 development draft, second round, the tier of players who begin without even a place on the official roster. From there the left-hander out of Sendai University worked his way into the rotation of Japan's wealthiest franchise, and by 2025 he was a fixture on a championship staff — a pitcher teammates describe as a craftsman, filling notebooks mid-game with observations about his own mechanics.

His 2026 regular season was a study in volatility: early knockouts and a demotion, then a one-hit shutout in his first game back, extending an almost comical mastery of interleague play — seven career interleague wins without a loss. The unevenness persisted through the final line. Ohzeki finished 3-4 with a 5.34 ERA over 57 1/3 innings in 10 appearances, with 36 strikeouts, 20 walks and 11 home runs allowed. The shutout was his only complete game. It remains the season's proof that the craft is intact; the broader line shows how hard it was to summon consistently. At 185 centimeters with a deceptive crossfire delivery, he profiles as the kind of thinking-man's lefty that can age well. The development draft was designed for players nobody believed in. Ohzeki has spent seven years making that an accounting error.