A very interesting piece of information came along over this past weekend while the Phillies were sweeping the Pirates. Sports Nippon reported that the Phillies sent general manager Preston Mattingly along with five other representatives to Japan to personally scout Teruaki Sato of the Hanshin Tigers in Nippon Professional Baseball. Matt Gelb of the Athletic added on Monday that assistant GM Jorge Velandia, international scouting director Derrick Chung, and assistant coordinator of international scouting Tora
Otsuka are among the team officials who have increased their focus on players in the Pacific Rim as the Phillies continue their attempts to finally break through into that fertile market of talent.
So, just who is Teruaki Sato, the latest object of the Phillies desire? He’s a 6’1, 207 pound, 27-year-old third baseman and outfielder who owns a career .269/.333/.506 with 135 home runs across six seasons in NPB. Last season, Sato, a left-handed hitter, hit .277 with a .924 OPS and slugged a career-best 40 home runs en route to winning Central League MVP honors. He also played for Team Japan in the 2026 World Baseball Classic this past spring and was 3-10 with three doubles and 2 RBIs. Below is a highlight video from Sato’s 2025 season with the Hanshin Tigers.
As you may be able to tell from that video, Sato’s power is his best trait despite his smaller frame. But that power comes with some prolific strikeout numbers. He owns a career 27.5% strikeout rate and his 27.3% mark from 2025 would have tied him with Byron Buxton for the 12th highest in MLB last season. He typically swings often and does not make a high degree of contact, with a swinging strike rate of 15.3% last year that would have tied him with Eugenio Suárez for the seventh highest among qualified hitters in MLB.
However, those strikeout numbers are coupled with a walk rate that is improving, as Sato’s 9.5% walk rate last season would have placed him slightly above the MLB average of 8.4% and was up from his 7.3% mark in 2024. There isn’t much to gleam from Sato’s 13.1% walk rate through 175 plate appearances in 2026 so far, but it does open the possibility that he may well end up finishing at or near his previous career high of 9.9% in 2023.
So why would the Phillies have interest in Sato? There is of course their obvious desire to finally land a big-name NPB free agent, but Sato’s fit on the roster is also easy to see. He plays both positions of their biggest impending free agents in Alec Bohm and Adolis Garcia. Neither are expected to be with the Phillies in 2027, so Sato could slot right in at either spot defensively, with third base being his primary position and where he was awarded a gold glove. Sato could theoretically start at 3B in the event Bohm departs and then shift to the outfield if Aidan Miller is deemed ready to man third. In the likely event Garcia is gone, Sato could be the Phillies starting right fielder and add some much-needed power to their outfield.
On the other hand, Sato’s left-handedness is not a clean fit, as the Phillies are severely lacking strong right-handed options in the lineup, especially power wise. It’s not known whether or not that would factor into the team’s decision making as it looks to fill either spot at 3B or RF. It’s also not known what preferences Sato may have for his next team or his prefered location. What is known though is that Sato is a big fan of Bryce Harper as noted in the aforementioned Sports Nippon article.
Sato is expected to be posted this winter and will be available to all teams as a free agent. But, with a looming threat of a work stoppage over the CBA negotiations, who knows if the posting system in its current form will still exist when the dust settles or how long a potential stoppage could last. One thing is for sure, and that is that the Phillies are continuing their full-court press at breaking through in the Pacific Rim, and Sato appears to be their newest target.
