NPB's Highest Pitching Honor
The Sawamura Award, established in 1947, honors the season's best starting pitcher. Named after Eiji Sawamura, who pitched brilliantly against Babe Ruth in the 1934 Japan-US series and posted a 24-4 record with a 0.81 ERA in the 1937 spring season, the first pitching quintuple crown in Japanese pro baseball, before dying in combat at age 27 in 1944. Seven criteria guide selection: 25+ games, 8+ complete games (10+ through 2025), 15+ wins, .600+ winning percentage, 180+ innings (200+ through 2025), 150+ strikeouts, and sub-2.50 ERA. The complete-game and innings thresholds were relaxed from 2026, the award's 80th year, as announced by the selection committee in October 2025.
The Lineage of Winners
Winners span from Showa legends Shigeru Sugishita and Masaichi Kaneda through Heisei stars Hideo Nomo, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Yu Darvish, and Masahiro Tanaka. Only Central League pitchers were eligible from 1950 through 1988, and the award opened to both leagues in 1989. Five pitchers share the record with three awards each: Sugishita, Kaneda, Minoru Murayama, Masaki Saito, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Yamamoto won three straight from 2021 to 2023 before joining the Dodgers, continuing the pattern of Sawamura winners challenging MLB.
Outdated Criteria Debate
The 10+ complete games and 200+ innings criteria are increasingly unreachable in 2020s NPB, where starters average around 6 innings. Zero Central League pitchers threw 200+ innings in 2023. Hanshin's Shoki Murakami posted a 1.75 ERA in 2023 but fell short on complete games and innings; the award went instead to Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Orix), who met the criteria for a third straight year. Murakami's case epitomized the gap between modern usage patterns and the selection criteria. The growing number of 'no recipient' years threatened the award's prestige - a debate that led the selection committee to relax the complete-game (10 to 8) and innings (200 to 180) thresholds from 2026.
Value and Future
The award carries 3 million yen and a gold cup, but its true value is recognition as NPB's premier starter. Reform proposals include incorporating FIP and WAR while relaxing complete game and innings thresholds. Though baseball has fundamentally changed since Sawamura's era, the award's essence of honoring the year's best starter remains constant. Evolving the criteria while preserving this core purpose is the best path to maintaining the Sawamura Award's prestige.
The Sawamura Award vs. Bullpen Specialization
The 'complete-game ace' ideal that the Sawamura Award presupposes has become increasingly rare as NPB has embraced bullpen specialization. Since the 2000s, starting pitchers typically exit around 100 pitches, making complete games exceptional events. Combined complete games across both leagues frequently fall below 50 per season. By contrast, when Eiji Sawamura pitched from 1936 to 1940, starting pitchers finishing games was the norm, and the concept of a relief specialist did not exist. While the division of labor has improved injury prevention and overall team performance, the erosion of the complete-game concept directly challenges the Sawamura Award's identity.
Pacific League Pitchers and the Award
Looking back at the Sawamura Award's history, certain periods show a pronounced tendency for Pacific League pitchers to win. The Pacific League's designated hitter rule means pitchers never bat, giving them a stamina advantage that facilitates deeper outings. Pacific League pitchers only became eligible in 1989, however: from 1950 through 1988 the award was open to Central League pitchers alone, so every Pacific League win has come since 1989, and the pattern of Pacific League power pitchers leading in complete games has recurred in the decades since. When Yoshinobu Yamamoto of Orix won in both 2021 and 2022, analysts noted how the DH rule reduced starters' workload. The Central League, by contrast, still has its pitchers bat in the regular-season games it hosts, using the designated hitter only in interleague play and in Japan Series games staged at Pacific League parks. How league differences will affect Sawamura Award selection going forward remains a noteworthy perspective.
The Sawamura Award as a Bridge to the International Stage
Winning the Sawamura Award has often foreshadowed an MLB challenge. Hideo Nomo won in 1990 and joined the Dodgers in 1995, pioneering the path for Japanese pitchers in MLB. Daisuke Matsuzaka won in 2001 with Seibu and signed with the Red Sox after the 2006 season. Yu Darvish won in 2007 with Nippon-Ham and moved to the Rangers after the 2011 season. Masahiro Tanaka posted an otherworldly 24-0 record in his 2013 award year before signing a massive contract with the Yankees. Yoshinobu Yamamoto joined the Dodgers after the 2023 season, having won three straight awards from 2021 to 2023. The Sawamura Award functions as a quality-assurance label for MLB scouts, and the repeated international transfers of winners have elevated the award's global recognition. That NPB's highest pitching honor also serves as a gateway to the world stage reflects the international competitiveness of Japanese baseball.
Recent Sawamura Award Results - Winners and the Years With No Winner
Looking back at the Sawamura Award season by season, the results mirror the strictness of the selection criteria. Tomoyuki Sugano (Yomiuri) won in 2018. In 2019 no pitcher met the criteria and the award was declared "no winner". In 2020 it went to Yudai Ono (Chunichi). From 2021 through 2023 Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Orix) won three years in a row, standing out as the pitcher who came closest to the Sawamura standards over that stretch. In 2024, the year Yamamoto left for the Dodgers in MLB, the award was again declared "no winner". In 2025 Hiromi Ito (Nippon-Ham) took his first. With only one or two pitchers a year, if any, clearing the thresholds for complete games and innings pitched, a pattern in which years with a winner and years with "no winner" alternate is becoming entrenched. Declaring "no winner" shows a selection committee unwilling to compromise on its standards, but it is also a problem for keeping the award itself in the public eye. The roll of winners and the frequency of "no winner" reflect exactly how NPB's use of pitchers has changed as the complete-game ace continues to disappear.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. How much is the Sawamura Award prize?
The winner receives 3 million yen and a gold cup. More than its monetary value, the honor of being recognized as NPB's finest starting pitcher is what carries weight.
Q. Why is the Sawamura Award sometimes declared "no winner"?
Because the spread of specialized pitching roles has sharply reduced the number of pitchers who meet criteria such as complete games and innings pitched. There was no winner in 2019 or in 2024. In response to that gap, the thresholds for complete games (from 10 to 8) and innings pitched (from 200 to 180) were relaxed in 2026.
Q. Who won the Sawamura Award in 2025?
Hiromi Ito (Hokkaido Nippon-Ham) won it for the first time. The previous year, 2024, had been declared "no winner".