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. By September, rehabilitation had advanced from private work to competitive innings. As of September 4, Ishii has made five farm appearances, striking out nine in five innings with a 1.80 ERA; he has yet to appear in a Central League game this season. The numbers are a small step, but after an injury that rearranged his year, taking the mound at all is the meaningful one. Command like his tends to survive surgery. The record book already proves how far the long way around can go.