Seiya Suzuki's Selection of Japan's Greatest Team of All Time

Seiya Suzuki, a Japanese Major League Baseball player who has been playing for the Chicago Cubs since 2022, is a renowned player in Japanese professional baseball, having achieved the league’s top batting average twice and the league’s highest on-base percentage twice. Furthermore, he has achieved a batting average of .300 or higher and 25 or more home runs for six consecutive years in Japanese professional baseball. This is a record achieved by only three players in Japanese professional baseball history, including Suzuki.

A collection of interviews with Seiya Suzuki during his time in Japan (in Japanese, Special Edition of Hiroshima Athlete Magazine, Athlete Magazine Co., Ltd., 2020)

I have always hoped and supported Suzuki, who has achieved such remarkable results in Japan and is also a very likable person, to succeed in Major League Baseball. And last year, 2025, his fourth year in Major League Baseball, he hit 32 home runs, becoming the first right-handed Japanese player to hit 30 or more home runs in a single season in Major League Baseball, which made me very happy. I look forward to his future success and intend to continue supporting him.

My sister is holding a towel featuring Seiya Suzuki, which was produced for the 2025 Tokyo Series (purchased from the official MLB online shop).

Now, I recently learned for the first time that in September 2024, Suzuki was interviewed in the United States and asked to name the greatest team of all time in Japanese professional baseball history. The interview video with Suzuki can still be found online.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DKdGjksSrw8/

Let’s list the all-time best Japanese professional baseball roster that Suzuki selected.

Pitcher: Yu Darvish

Catcher: Kenji Johjima

First Baseman: Sadaharu Oh

Second Baseman: Tadahito Iguchi

Third Baseman: Munetaka Murakami

Shortstop: Kazuo Matsui

Left Fielder: Hideki Matsui

Center Fielder: Yuki Yanagita

Right Fielder: Ichiro

DH: Shohei Ohtani

Selections of this kind are largely based on personal preference, and evaluating people is incredibly difficult; there’s no standard that everyone will agree on. Therefore, I think we should not criticize these kinds of selections. And I have absolutely no intention of criticizing Suzuki’s selection. However, I can’t help but have the strong feeling of strangeness about Suzuki’s selection.

Here, I’d like to explain my strong feeling of strangeness about Suzuki’s selection.

First, there are an unusually large number of players who have played in Major League Baseball since the 21st century, seven out of ten (Yu Darvish, Kenji Johjima, Tadahito Iguchi, Kazuo Matsui, Hideki Matsui, Ichiro, Shohei Ohtani). Two of these seven are still active players (Yu Darvish, Shohei Ohtani).

Regarding the remaining three: Munetaka Murakami hadn’t yet moved to Major League Baseball at the time of Suzuki’s selection in 2024, but he is now an active Major Leaguer. Considering the current situation, there are eight players who played in Major League Baseball in the 21st century, and three of them are still active. Yuki Yanagita has never played in Major League Baseball, but he is an active player in Japanese professional baseball. In summary, 9 out of the 10 players played in the 21st century, and 4 of those 9 are still active players. Sadaharu Oh is the only player who is neither an active player nor has ever played in Major League Baseball.

I can only conclude that Suzuki’s selections are too heavily biased towards players who have played in Major League Baseball since the 21st century. Until Hideo Nomo started playing in Major League Baseball in 1995, many excellent Japanese players, no matter how much they wanted to, were unable to play in Major League Baseball. My strongest feeling of strangeness stems from the fact that only Sadaharu Oh was selected from among the players who excelled in 20th-century Japanese professional baseball.

While I acknowledge that all the players Suzuki selected are great players, I don’t believe they are all superior to the players who excelled in the 20th century, and I can’t help but have the strong feeling of strangeness about Suzuki’s selection.

To help people in the United States understand how strange I feel about the members selected by Suzuki, I’d like to try selecting the greatest all-time Major League Baseball roster using Suzuki’s method. Below is my selection of the greatest all-time Major League Baseball roster. Since I’m imitating Suzuki’s method, nine of the players played in the 21st century, and four of those nine are still active players. Only one player played in the 20th century.

Pitcher: Justin Verlander (An active player. Selected over players in the 20th century like Cy Young, Pete Alexander, Walter Johnson, and Sandy Koufax.)

Catcher: Yadier Molina (A catcher who played and retired in the 21st century. Selected over players in the 20th century like Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella, and Johnny Bench.)

First Baseman: Albert Pujols (A player who played and retired in the 21st century. Selected over players in the 20th century like Lou Gehrig, Stan Musial, and Jimmie Foxx.)

Second Baseman: Jose Altuve (An active player. Selected over players in the 20th century like Rogers Hornsby and Joe Morgan)

Third Baseman: Miguel Cabrera (A player who played and retired in the 21st century. Selected over players in the 20th century like Mike Schmidt, George Brett, and Wade Boggs)

Shortstop: Brandon Crawford (A player who played and retired in the 21st century. Selected over players in the 20th century like Honus Wagner, Ozzie Smith, and Cal Ripken Jr. And selected over Derek Jeter who played in the 20th and 21st century)

Left Fielder: Ryan Braun (A player who played and retired in the 21st century. Selected over Ted Williams)

Center Fielder: Aaron Judge (An active player. Selected over players in the 20th century like Willie Mays, Joe DiMaggio, and Mickey Mantle)

Right Fielder: Babe Ruth (A player who played in the 20th century)

DH: Shohei Ohtani (An active player. Selected over players in the 20th century like Edgar Martinez and David Ortiz)

What do you think of this selection? I think that many MLB fans in the United States probably have the feeling of strangeness. That feeling of strangeness is the same feeling I feel about Suzuki’s all-time greatest Japanese professional baseball roster.

Finally, I’ll list my all-time greatest Japanese professional baseball roster. I haven’t included any active players, because I believe active players whose career statistics haven’t been finalized shouldn’t be included in an all-time greatest roster. Only two players have played in Major League Baseball.

Pitcher: Masaichi Kaneda (400 career wins, 4,490 strikeouts – Both are the highest records in Japanese professional baseball history)

Catcher: Katsuya Nomura (The first Triple Crown winner in Japanese professional baseball after World War II. Played in 3,017 games, 2,921 of which were as a catcher)

First Baseman: Sadaharu Oh (868 career home runs)

Second Baseman: Kazunori Shinozuka (He led the league in batting average twice. Seven seasons with a batting average above .300 including five consecutive seasons, career batting average .304. Also famous for his brilliant fielding)

Third Baseman: Shigeo Nagashima (The greatest superstar in Japanese professional baseball history. As a rookie, he captivated Japan with his phenomenal performance, leading the league in home runs and RBIs, and ranking second in batting average, dramatically increasing the popularity of professional baseball. The current popularity of professional baseball in Japan largely depends on him, and he is known as "Mr. Professional Baseball." He led the league in batting average six-times, home runs twice, and RBIs five times)

Shortstop: Kazuo Matsui (He is considered the greatest switch-hitter in Japanese professional baseball history. Also played in Major League Baseball for 7 years)

Left Fielder: Isao Harimoto (The only player to achieve 3,000 career hits in Japanese professional baseball. Also achieved 500 career home runs.)

Center Fielder: Yutaka Fukumoto (106 stolen bases in a single season, and 1,065 career stolen bases are both the highest records in Japanese professional baseball history. He led the league stolen bases for 13 consecutive years and hits four times)

Right Fielder: Ichiro (Achieved 3,000 hits in Major League Baseball.)

DH: Hiromitsu Kadota (He led the league home runs three-times, RBIs twice and on-base percentage three times. At the age of 40, he achieved the incredible feat of leading the league with 44 home runs and 125 RBIs.)

I’m sure there will be people who disagree with my selection of the greatest Japanese professional baseball players of all time. That’s fine, because, as mentioned above, this kind of selection is largely based on personal preference, and there are no selection criteria that everyone will agree on.

However, there is one last thing I absolutely want to say. Those who believe that respect for the many great players who have appeared in the history of Japanese professional baseball and fair judgment of records are important will likely agree with my selection over Suzuki’s.

(If I’ve made a mistake or left out something important, please let me know. I’ll try to make corrections or additions.)