NPB has announced that this year’s spring training facilities in Okinawa, as well as Kyushu and the rest of Japan, will be completely off-limits to fans this year. Obviously, this is to reduce the risk of an outbreak of Covid-19 amongst fans, players, staff, and the residents of host cities and towns. This is what manager Akihiro Yano had to say about this year’s camp. Sorry, no English subtitles or translation provided!
Anyhow, here is the basic schedule and squad divisions for this year’s spring training.
First Squad: February 1 – March 1 in Ginoza, Okinawa
Scheduled days off: February 5 (Fri), 10 (Wed), 15 (Mon), 19 (Fri), 24 (Wed)
Exhibition games scheduled:
- 9th (Tue) 1:00 pm vs. Nippon Ham @ Ginoza
- 11th (Thur) 1:00 pm vs. Nippon Ham @ Nago
- 16th (Tue) 1:00 pm vs. Rakuten @ Ginoza
- 20th (Sat) 1:00 pm vs. Chunichi @ Chatan
- 21st (Sun) 1:00 pm vs. Hiroshima @ Ginoza
- 23rd (Tue) 1:00 pm vs. Yokohama DeNA @ Ginoza
- 27th (Sat) 1:00 pm vs. Chunichi @ Chatan
- 28th (Sun) 12:30 pm vs. Yakult @ Urasoe
Players invited:
Pitchers – Suguru Iwazaki, Wei-Yin Chen, Junya Nishi, Yuki Nishi, Yuta Iwasada, Kosuke Baba, Shintaro Fujinami, Masashi Itoh, Taiki Ono, Haruto Takahashi, Ren Satoh, Masaki Tanigawa, Jon Edwards, Takumi Akiyama, Yukiya Saitoh, Joe Gunkel, Koyo Aoyagi, Ren Kajiya, Ippei Ogawa, Daichi Ishii, Shota Suzuki = 21 men
Catchers – Ryutaro Umeno, Seishiro Sakamoto, Yuki Sakaeda, Fumihito Haraguchi = 4 men
Infielders – Yasuhiro Yamamoto, Seiya Kinami, Yusuke Ohyama, Teruaki Sato, Fumiya Hojoh, Jefry Marte, Kento Itohara, Ryuhei Obata, Takumu Nakano, Naomasa Yohkawa = 10 men
Outfielders – Koji Chikamoto, Yoshio Itoi, Shun Takayama, Kouta Inoue, Jerry Sands, Masahiro Nakatani, Dan Onodera = 7 men
Second Squad: February 1 – March 1 in Aki, Kochi
Scheduled days off: February 5 (Fri), 10 (Wed), 15 (Mon), 19 (Fri), 24 (Wed)
Exhibition games scheduled:
- 13th (Sat) 12:30 pm vs. Company X @ Aki
- 14th (Sun), TBA
- 20th (Sat) 12:30 pm vs. Seibu @ Aki
- 21st (Sun) 12:30 pm vs. Company Y @ Aki
- 23rd (Tue), TBA
- 27th (Sat) 12:30 pm vs. Kagawa Olive Guyners @ Aki
- 28th (Sun) 12:30 pm vs. Kochi Fighting Dogs @ Aki
Players designated:
Pitchers – Kenichi Nakata, Minoru Iwata, Masumi Hamachi, Masaki Oyokawa, Yuya Onaka, Shoki Murakami, Koki Moriya, Riku Kawahara, Keisuke Kobayashi, Atsushi Mochizuki, Kentaro Kuwahara, Atsuki Yuasa, Kazuo Itoh, Masaki Ishii, Hiroya Shimamoto, Hiroto Saiki, Masaki Iwata, Joichiro Maki = 18 men
Catchers – Kenya Nagasaka, Kento Fujita, Yuya Katayama = 3 men
Infielders – Takahiro Kumagai, Jo Endo, Fumiya Araki, Kai Ueda, Nozomu Takatera, Kosuke Fujitani = 6 men
Outfielders – Taiga Egoshi, Kairi Shimada, Yutaro Itayama, Shunsuke, Kouta Okuyama = 5 men