NPB Player Movement Database

Daichi Ishii's route to stardom reads like a rejected screenplay: an engineering college in snowy Akita, then the independent Shikoku Island League, then the eighth and final round of the 2020 draft — the place where teams pick players they expect to forget. Hanshin did not forget. By 2025 Ishii was the most untouchable reliever in Japan, stringing together 50 consecutive scoreless appearances, a national record, and earning his first All-Star selection while setting up wins for a pennant-winning bullpen.

Then, in February 2026, the story hit its cruelest scene: covering home plate in a spring intrasquad game, he ruptured his left Achilles tendon, forcing him out of the WBC squad he had just been named to and off the mound for the season's opening months. Rehabilitation eventually carried him back through five farm appearances: five innings, nine strikeouts and a 1.80 ERA.

His season did not end there. Ishii returned to the first team and finished the 2026 regular season with 12 appearances, a 1-2 record, two holds and a 3.86 ERA in 11 2/3 innings. He struck out 15 and walked four. That brief return should not be confused with a full season of the dominance he showed in 2025; after an injury that rearranged his year, simply reclaiming a place on the mound was the meaningful step. The record book already proves how far the long way around can go.