Free-Agent Signings Ranked - Yomiuri Giants First with 11
Counting the free-agent filing announcements published for the 2016 to 2025 offseasons, the club that signed the most free agents from other teams is the Yomiuri Giants with 11, and over the same period no free agent moved from Yomiuri to another NPB club (Tomoyuki Sugano left for abroad as a free agent after the 2024 season). Adding one MLB returnee brings Yomiuri to 12, exactly double the second-placed Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks (four free-agent signings plus two MLB returnees, six in all). Third are the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles with five (four free-agent signings plus one MLB returnee), and the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters and the ORIX Buffaloes share fourth with four each.
| Rank | Team | FA in | FA out | Net | MLB returnees | Total | Pennants | Avg. finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yomiuri Giants | 11 | 0 | +11 | 1 | 12 | 3 | 2.67 |
| 2 | Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks | 4 | 5 | -1 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 1.89 |
| 3 | Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles | 4 | 3 | +1 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 3.89 |
| 4 | Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters | 4 | 6 | -2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4.33 |
| 4 | ORIX Buffaloes | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 3.44 |
| 6 | Chiba Lotte Marines | 3 | 1 | +2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3.89 |
| 7 | Hanshin Tigers | 2 | 1 | +1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2.44 |
| 7 | Saitama Seibu Lions | 2 | 6 | -4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3.56 |
| 7 | Yokohama DeNA BayStars | 1 | 6 | -5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3.22 |
| 10 | Chunichi Dragons | 1 | 2 | -1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5.00 |
| 10 | Tokyo Yakult Swallows | 1 | 0 | +1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4.22 |
| 10 | Hiroshima Toyo Carp | 0 | 3 | -3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3.44 |
Total is free-agent signings plus MLB returnees, and teams with the same total share a rank. Net is signings minus losses. Pennants are league championships, and average finish is the mean league position (1st to 6th).
Free-agent signings by team (filings 2016-2025)
Numbers inside the bars are players.
How We Counted - Only Filings Where the Signing Club Differs
The count uses only the rows of NPB's official list of free-agent filings in which the club the player filed from differs from the club he signed with. Players who filed and then re-signed with their own club are not counted. The losses column counts only players who moved to another NPB club as free agents; the six who filed and signed with clubs abroad (Yoshihisa Hirano from the ORIX Buffaloes after the 2017 season, Shogo Akiyama from the Saitama Seibu Lions after 2019, Hirokazu Sawamura from the Chiba Lotte Marines after 2020, Kodai Senga from the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks after 2022, Yuki Matsui from the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles after 2023 and Tomoyuki Sugano from the Yomiuri Giants after 2024) are not counted as a loss for any club. The period covers ten offseasons, 2016 to 2025; earlier announcements were left out because they are not published in a form that shows the signing club. How free-agent rights are earned and how player compensation works is covered in the article on NPB free agency.
The "money" in the title refers to how many players a club has bought from others on the free-agent market. Contract values and lengths do not appear in the announcements, so they are not given here. Moves that do not appear in the free-agent filings are not part of this ranking; they are listed in the last section.
Free-Agent Losses - The Clubs That Saw Players Leave
The most free-agent departures, six each, came from the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, the Saitama Seibu Lions and the Yokohama DeNA BayStars. On a net basis DeNA (-5) and Seibu (-4) lost the most: three players went from DeNA to Yomiuri (Shun Yamaguchi, Takayuki Kajitani and Shoichi Ino) and two from Seibu (Ryoma Nogami and Ginjiro Sumitani). Only two clubs lost no one to other NPB clubs, Yomiuri and the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, and Yomiuri's net gain of +11 is the only double-digit figure among the 12 teams.
Free-agent losses by team (filings 2016-2025)
Numbers inside the bars are players.
Of the 11 players who moved to Yomiuri, three came from DeNA, two each from Nippon-Ham, SoftBank and Seibu, and one each from Hiroshima and Rakuten: the more Yomiuri buys, the more other clubs end up giving up players. Apart from Yomiuri, the only clubs with a positive net are the Chiba Lotte Marines (+2) and Rakuten, the Hanshin Tigers and Yakult (+1 each), none of them above two.
MLB Returnees Who Joined a Different Club - The Uwasawa Pattern
When players who went abroad come back to Japan, some sign with an NPB club other than the one they left. Six players went abroad after the 2016 to 2025 seasons and came back to a different club by 2026: Kazuhisa Makita (left the Saitama Seibu Lions after the 2017 season, joined the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in 2020), Shogo Akiyama (left Seibu as a free agent after the 2019 season, joined the Hiroshima Toyo Carp in 2022), Kohei Arihara (left the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters after the 2020 season, joined the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in 2023), Shintaro Fujinami (left the Hanshin Tigers after the 2022 season, joined the Yokohama DeNA BayStars in 2025), Naoyuki Uwasawa (left Nippon-Ham after the 2023 season, joined SoftBank in 2025) and Shinnosuke Ogasawara (left the Chunichi Dragons after the 2024 season, joined the Yomiuri Giants in 2026). Because both Nippon-Ham departures ended up at SoftBank, SoftBank leads this column with two.
The check works in two steps. First, players who went abroad are picked out of the announcements (free-agent filings with no signing club, and release notices that record a waiver of the reserve right); then later rosters are searched for the player's name at a club other than his old one. The same pattern appears before the period: Yusaku Iriki (left Nippon-Ham after the 2005 season, joined the Yokohama BayStars in 2008), Wei-Yin Chen (left the Chunichi Dragons after the 2011 season, joined the Chiba Lotte Marines in 2020) and Kenta Maeda (left the Hiroshima Toyo Carp after the 2015 season, joined the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in 2026).
Did the Buyers Win? Signings Set Against Pennants
Yomiuri, with 11 free-agent signings, won 3 of the 9 Central League pennants from 2017 to 2025, with an average finish of 2.67. The most pennants in the same period went to the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks with four (average finish 1.89), a club that signed four free agents and lost five. The ORIX Buffaloes signed four, lost four and won three pennants; the Hiroshima Toyo Carp signed none, lost three and won two. The Hanshin Tigers, who finished ahead of Yomiuri on average (2.44), signed two.
Signings and pennants do not move together. Yomiuri is the only club with a double-digit free-agent net gain, yet it won fewer pennants than SoftBank and the same number as ORIX, which signed fewer than half as many. Collecting free agents also widens the gap by taking players away from rivals, but on this period's numbers a policy of building through spending power has not been a shortcut to winning.
Team by Team - Who Came, Who Left, Who Returned
The names behind the numbers, team by team. The year is the year of the free-agent filing (for MLB returnees, the year they joined the new club), and the club in parentheses is where the player came from or went to.
| Team | FA in | FA out | MLB returnees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yomiuri Giants | 2016 Yang Dai-kang (Nippon-Ham) 2016 Masahiko Morifuku (SoftBank) 2016 Shun Yamaguchi (DeNA) 2017 Ryoma Nogami (Seibu) 2018 Yoshihiro Maru (Hiroshima) 2018 Ginjiro Sumitani (Seibu) 2020 Takayuki Kajitani (DeNA) 2020 Shoichi Ino (DeNA) 2024 Takuya Kai (SoftBank) 2025 Go Matsumoto (Nippon-Ham) 2025 Takahiro Norimoto (Rakuten) | None | 2026 Shinnosuke Ogasawara (Chunichi) |
| Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks | 2021 Katsuki Matayoshi (Chunichi) 2022 Hiroki Minei (DeNA) 2022 Kensuke Kondo (Nippon-Ham) 2023 Hotaka Yamakawa (Seibu) | 2016 Masahiko Morifuku (Yomiuri) 2017 Shinya Tsuruoka (Nippon-Ham) 2019 Shuhei Fukuda (Lotte) 2024 Shuta Ishikawa (Lotte) 2024 Takuya Kai (Yomiuri) | 2023 Kohei Arihara (Nippon-Ham) 2025 Naoyuki Uwasawa (Nippon-Ham) |
| Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles | 2016 Takayuki Kishi (Seibu) 2018 Hideto Asamura (Seibu) 2019 Daichi Suzuki (Lotte) 2025 Hikaru Ito (DeNA) | 2019 Manabu Mima (Lotte) 2024 Eigoro Mogi (Yakult) 2025 Takahiro Norimoto (Yomiuri) | 2020 Kazuhisa Makita (Seibu) |
| Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters | 2017 Shinya Tsuruoka (SoftBank) 2022 Torai Fushimi (ORIX) 2023 Sachiya Yamasaki (ORIX) 2024 Koji Fukutani (Chunichi) | 2016 Yang Dai-kang (Yomiuri) 2017 Hirotoshi Masui (ORIX) 2017 Shota Ohno (Chunichi) 2022 Kensuke Kondo (SoftBank) 2025 Kazunari Ishii (Seibu) 2025 Go Matsumoto (Yomiuri) | None |
| ORIX Buffaloes | 2017 Hirotoshi Masui (Nippon-Ham) 2022 Tomoya Mori (Seibu) 2023 Ryoma Nishikawa (Hiroshima) 2024 Aren Kuri (Hiroshima) | 2016 Yoshio Itoi (Hanshin) 2018 Yuki Nishi (Hanshin) 2022 Torai Fushimi (Nippon-Ham) 2023 Sachiya Yamasaki (Nippon-Ham) | None |
| Chiba Lotte Marines | 2019 Shuhei Fukuda (SoftBank) 2019 Manabu Mima (Rakuten) 2024 Shuta Ishikawa (SoftBank) | 2019 Daichi Suzuki (Rakuten) | None |
| Hanshin Tigers | 2016 Yoshio Itoi (ORIX) 2018 Yuki Nishi (ORIX) | 2017 Yamato (DeNA) | None |
| Saitama Seibu Lions | 2025 Kazunari Ishii (Nippon-Ham) 2025 Masayuki Kuwahara (DeNA) | 2016 Takayuki Kishi (Rakuten) 2017 Ryoma Nogami (Yomiuri) 2018 Hideto Asamura (Rakuten) 2018 Ginjiro Sumitani (Yomiuri) 2022 Tomoya Mori (ORIX) 2023 Hotaka Yamakawa (SoftBank) | None |
| Yokohama DeNA BayStars | 2017 Yamato (Hanshin) | 2016 Shun Yamaguchi (Yomiuri) 2020 Takayuki Kajitani (Yomiuri) 2020 Shoichi Ino (Yomiuri) 2022 Hiroki Minei (SoftBank) 2025 Hikaru Ito (Rakuten) 2025 Masayuki Kuwahara (Seibu) | 2025 Shintaro Fujinami (Hanshin) |
| Chunichi Dragons | 2017 Shota Ohno (Nippon-Ham) | 2021 Katsuki Matayoshi (SoftBank) 2024 Koji Fukutani (Nippon-Ham) | None |
| Tokyo Yakult Swallows | 2024 Eigoro Mogi (Rakuten) | None | None |
| Hiroshima Toyo Carp | None | 2018 Yoshihiro Maru (Yomiuri) 2023 Ryoma Nishikawa (ORIX) 2024 Aren Kuri (ORIX) | 2022 Shogo Akiyama (Seibu) |
How to Read This Ranking and Its Limits
The count covers free-agent announcements up to January 2026 and rosters up to October 2026 (for MLB returnees). Moves that do not appear in free-agent filings (player compensation, cash transfers, trades, the active-player draft and released players signing with a new club) and signings of foreign players are not included. Released players who signed elsewhere include Hiroyuki Nakajima (ORIX Buffaloes to Yomiuri Giants, 2019) and Masahiro Tanaka (Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles to Yomiuri Giants, 2025). Nor does it measure how the signed players performed afterwards, so it shows how much a club bought on the free-agent market, not whether the moves worked. The share of each team's first-team players by route of entry can be seen club by club on the Roster origins, all 12 clubs page.