Nippon Professional Baseball crowned two dominant stars at its annual awards ceremony, naming Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks ace Liván Moinelo the 2025 Pacific League Most Valuable Player and Hanshin Tigers slugger Teruaki Sato the 2025 Central League Most Valuable Player. The selections reflect a season defined by elite pitching dominance and overwhelming offensive production at the highest level of Japanese baseball.
Liván Moinelo: A Historic MVP for the Pacific League
After an outstanding transition from elite reliever to frontline starter, Liván Moinelo authored one of the most dominant pitching seasons in recent NPB history. Already excellent in 2024, the Cuban left-hander took another leap in 2025, separating himself from every other pitcher in the Pacific League.
Moinelo finished the season with a microscopic 1.07 ERA, leading all NPB starters, while striking out 150 batters in 143.1 innings. He threw three complete games, including the first two shutouts of his NPB career, and posted a 29-inning scoreless streak during the heart of the season. His advanced metrics further illustrate the dominance: first in WHIP (0.87), first in ERA+ (278), second in strikeout rate (27.8%), and among league leaders in innings pitched, batting average against, and shutouts.
These numbers place Moinelo squarely in the conversation with peak seasons from Yoshinobu Yamamoto, underscoring just how rare his 2025 campaign was. The MVP award also puts him on the brink of history, no Cuban-born player has ever won an NPB league MVP or the Eiji Sawamura Award, Japan’s equivalent of the Cy Young. Moinelo now stands as the leading candidate to achieve both.
At 29, firmly in his prime, Moinelo has established himself not only as the cornerstone of the SoftBank rotation but as one of the greatest foreign pitchers ever to compete in NPB.
Teruaki Sato: Power, Consistency, and Central League Supremacy
While Moinelo dominated from the mound, Teruaki Sato ruled the batter’s box in the Central League. The Hanshin Tigers star delivered a career-defining season, blending elite power with improved plate discipline and consistency to earn his first Central League MVP award.
In 139 games, Sato slashed .277/.345/.579, crushing 40 home runs and driving in 102 runs. He totaled 149 hits, 83 extra-base hits, and an eye-popping 311 total bases, establishing himself as the most dangerous hitter in the league from Opening Day to the final weeks of the season.
What separated Sato in 2025 was not just raw power, but refinement. Long viewed as a high-variance slugger, he cut down prolonged slumps, handled breaking pitches more effectively, and became a consistent middle-of-the-order force. Opposing teams were forced to pitch around him, yet he continued to deliver in high-leverage situations, carrying the Tigers’ offense night after night.
Sato’s MVP season cements his status as the face of the Hanshin Tigers and one of the premier hitters of his generation in Japanese baseball.
Two MVPs, One Defining NPB Season
The 2025 NPB season will be remembered as a showcase of excellence on both sides of the game. Liván Moinelo’s pitching dominance redefined what a modern NPB ace can be, while Teruaki Sato’s offensive explosion embodied the impact of a true franchise slugger.
Together, their MVP honors reflect not only individual brilliance, but a league thriving on elite talent and historic performances. From Fukuoka to Osaka, the message of 2025 was clear: NPB’s brightest stars stood above the rest, and Moinelo and Sato were in a class of their own.