The Answer - Not One Architect
At the draft conference on October 26, 2020, Hanshin selected nine players, including one developmental pick. The class that the press and fans call the "Divine Draft" was not the work of a single architect. Under chief scout Shunji Hatayama, area scouts each took charge of their own players, and manager Akihiro Yano pushed for the late-round picks. The nine players and the scouts whose assignments the press confirmed are listed below.
| Round | Player (team at the time) | Scout | Key record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Teruaki Sato (Kindai University) | Ryo Watanabe | 2025 MVP, home run leader (40) |
| 2nd | Shoji Ito (JR East) | - | 10 wins in 2021 and 2023 |
| 3rd | Ren Sato (Jobu University) | - | 1 top-team game in 2024 |
| 4th | Yuki Sakaeda (Ritsumeikan University) | - | 12 top-team games, 2022 to 2025 |
| 5th | Shoki Murakami (Toyo University) | Makoto Yoshino | 2023 MVP and Rookie of the Year |
| 6th | Takumu Nakano (Mitsubishi Motors Okazaki) | Kazuya Tsutsui | 2021 stolen base leader, 2023 hits leader |
| 7th | Nozomu Takadera (Ueda Nishi High School) | - | 67 top-team games in 2025 |
| 8th | Daichi Ishii (Kochi Fighting Dogs) | - | 2025 Commissioner's Special Award |
| Dev. 1st | Masaki Iwata (Kyushu Sangyo University) | - | 3 top-team games for Yokohama DeNA in 2025 |
Hatayama, who became a Hanshin scout in 2002, visited Shoki Murakami at Toyo University as chief scout with scout Makoto Yoshino in October 2020 to greet him after the pick (Draft Kaigi.com). In its interview with Hatayama, Nikkan Sports framed the class as the product of a strategy that clearly defined the team's needs.
The records bear this out. Counting Central League batting and pitching titles together with MVP and Rookie of the Year awards from 2021 to 2025, the fifth- and sixth-round picks won eight between them, and first-rounder Teruaki Sato won three. Over the same span, Hanshin won the league and the Japan Series in 2023 and the league again in 2025.
First Round, Teruaki Sato - The Lottery and Scout Ryo Watanabe
Four teams named Teruaki Sato (Kindai University) in the first round: Hanshin, Orix, Fukuoka SoftBank and Yomiuri. Hanshin won the lottery for his negotiating rights, and the man who drew the lot was Yano. In a later conversation, Yano listed "drawing Sato in the lottery" as one of his contributions (Asagei Plus). Other lottery stories are collected in the article on draft lotteries.
His scout was Ryo Watanabe, a relief pitcher who joined Hanshin in the fourth round of the 2005 university and corporate draft and appeared in 362 games. In 2016, the year after he retired, he became a professional scout for the club, and in 2019 he moved to amateur scouting, where he covered Sato. On November 10, 2023, the club announced Watanabe as its new farm pitching coach (Nikkan Sports).
In the comments it released on draft day, the club called Sato the best slugger in college baseball and "a player who conveys a sense of scale" (Baseball Channel). Sato hit 24 home runs as a rookie in 2021 and received a Rookie Special Award. In 2025 he led the league with 40 home runs and 102 RBI and was named Central League MVP.
Fifth-Rounder Shoki Murakami and Sixth-Rounder Takumu Nakano - The Scouts Behind Two Late Picks Who Became Regulars
Fifth-rounder Shoki Murakami (Toyo University) was scouted by Makoto Yoshino. Murakami had won the spring Koshien tournament as a third-year at Chiben Gakuen, but in 2020 he was diagnosed with a strained right arm, and when the club came to greet him he had only progressed to long-tossing 80 to 90 meters (Draft Kaigi.com). Yoshino told Sports Hochi: "Control comes first. Not just his fastball, he can throw every breaking ball with precision too. I told him he was a pitcher the manager (Yano) had been very keen on."
Murakami pitched in two top-team games in 2021 and none in 2022. In 2023 he won the ERA title at 1.75 and received the Central League MVP and Rookie of the Year awards in the same season. In 2025 he won three more titles: most wins (14), most strikeouts (144) and best winning percentage. His career is covered in the article on Shoki Murakami.
Sixth-rounder Takumu Nakano (Mitsubishi Motors Okazaki) was scouted by Kazuya Tsutsui. A former Hanshin pitcher, Tsutsui covered both Nakano and Atsuki Yuasa as a scout. When the two returned from the world title at the WBC in March 2023, Tsutsui said: "I think I was more nervous than they were (laughs). I got to see both of them play as true Samurai. That alone makes me happy" (Nikkan Sports).
Nakano led the league with 30 steals as a rookie in 2021 and received a Rookie Special Award. He won the Best Nine at shortstop in 2022, and in 2023 he led the league with 164 hits (tied with Shugo Maki) and won a Golden Glove at second base. In 2025 he played all 143 games and won both the Best Nine and the Golden Glove at second base.
Second-Rounder Shoji Ito and Eighth-Rounder Daichi Ishii - The Club's Comments and Yano's Words
Of second-rounder Shoji Ito (JR East), the club pointed to a delivery that hides the ball and the bite on his pitches, calling him "a versatile type who can be expected to succeed as a starter or a reliever." Yano revealed in the conversation: "We really wanted a left-hander, so we rated Shoji Ito as ready to contribute right away and put him higher." Ito won 10 games and a Rookie Special Award in 2021 and won 10 again in 2023. He was the winning pitcher in Game 7 of the 2023 Japan Series, when Hanshin beat Orix four games to three to become champions of Japan.
Eighth-rounder Daichi Ishii came to the draft from Akita Technical College by way of the Kochi Fighting Dogs. The club cited his fast, powerful fastball and steady control, calling him "a ready-made pitcher with a strong ability to manage a game." Yano said: "Ishii isn't tall either, but he can really drive his fastball. Even if a player is missing something, having one thing that is genuinely good is what matters in the late rounds."
Ishii recorded 30 holds in 56 games in 2024, and 36 holds with a 0.17 ERA in 53 games in 2025. In 2025 he received a special prize of the Commissioner's Special Award "in recognition of the feat of setting a new NPB record of 50 consecutive scoreless games in a season." The press did not confirm who scouted either player.
Manager Yano's Picks - "Fifth, Sixth and Eighth"
In a conversation with former Hanshin pitcher Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi (the September 12, 2025 episode of the YouTube channel "Sportsnavi Baseball Channel"), Yano looked back on 2020 as "the year we were able to carry out the draft exactly as we had drawn it up in advance." According to Asagei Plus, the contributions he named were: "What I was able to contribute was drawing Sato in the lottery, and the fifth, sixth and eighth rounds, I suppose." The article adds that these were the picks Yano strongly pushed for. The fifth was Murakami, the sixth Nakano and the eighth Ishii.
On Nakano, he said: "Take Nakano, for example. By the evaluations back then he wasn't a top-three-round player. He fell short in arm and strength. Not much power. But I thought, Nakano is small, but he can pull the inside pitch, and this guy's hitting is amazing." On Murakami: "Murakami was injured too, but I thought his raw talent was outstanding, so the players we got in the late rounds are working out." Of seventh-rounder Nozomu Takadera, he said: "As for Takadera, the scouts rated him extremely highly."
What Yano's words reveal is that the yardstick for the late rounds was not counting what a player lacked but finding the one strength that stood out: Nakano pulling the inside pitch despite a weaker arm and less power, Ishii driving a strong fastball despite his height, Murakami's raw talent despite his injury. The area scouts built up the evaluations of their own players, and the manager on the field bet on those strengths in the late rounds. Just as Yoshino had relayed that Murakami was "a pitcher the manager had been very keen on," in this draft the assigned scouts' evaluations and the manager's preferences converged on the same players.
The other four took different paths. Third-rounder Ren Sato pitched in one top-team game, in 2024, and fourth-rounder Yuki Sakaeda appeared in 12 top-team games from 2022 to 2025. Seventh-rounder Takadera played 67 top-team games in 2025, and developmental first-rounder Masaki Iwata pitched in three top-team games for Yokohama DeNA in 2025. The debate over Hanshin's draft approach is covered in the article on Hanshin's draft strategy debate, and the 2025 pennant in the article on Hanshin's 2025 league title.
How to Read This Article and Its Limits
The press confirmed the scouts for only three players: Ryo Watanabe for Teruaki Sato, Makoto Yoshino for Shoki Murakami and Kazuya Tsutsui for Takumu Nakano. For the other six, neither a club announcement nor a newspaper article could be found, so their scouts are not named here. Chief scout Hatayama's own remarks are not quoted, because the content of the paywalled interview could not be checked.
When the name "Divine Draft" was first used, and by whom, is unknown. Statistics and titles follow the official NPB records, with the year given for each. This article does not evaluate individual players.