2012 Nippon Professional Baseball draft
The 2012 Nippon Professional Baseball Draft was held on October 25,, for the 48th time at the Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa to assign amateur baseball players to the NPB. It was arranged with the special cooperation of Toshiba with official naming rights. The draft was officially called "The Professional Baseball Draft Meeting supported by Reed. It has been sponsored by Toshiba for the 4th consecutive year since 2009.
Summary
Only the first round picks will be done by bid lottery. After the second round, waver selections were made in order from the lowest-ranked team of the 2012 season in both the Central League and Pacific League, the third round was reversed and selections were made from the top team, and the fourth round was reversed again, alternating with selections from the lowest-ranked team until all teams had finished selecting players.Since the season, the winner of the NPB All-Star Game has determined whether the Central League or the Pacific League gets waiver preference after the second round. In the 2012 All-Star Game, the Central League won two games, so the Central League was given waiver priority over the Central League.
This draft was notable for featuring Shohei Ohtani, who would go on to be the most accomplished Japanese player in baseball history. Four days before the NPB draft, Ohtani, a highly acclaimed prospect, announced that he planned to be the first Japanese player to go directly from high school to Major League Baseball in the United States. That led most NPB teams to avoid drafting him, fearing a wasted pick. Only the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters decided to use its first-round pick to draft Ohtani, hoping he would decide to start his career in Japan. The Fighters prepared a video presentation titled "The Path to Realizing Shohei Ohtani's Dream" that outlined the difficult life of minor leaguers playing rookie ball in the United States. Meanwhile, Ohtani's preferred MLB team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, didn't want him to continue both pitching and hitting. After negotiations, Ohtani announced he would indeed sign with the Fighters.
First Round Contested Picks
- Bolded teams indicate who won the right to negotiate contract following a lottery.
- In the first round, Koji Fukutani was selected by Dragons, Tomoyuki Sugano was selected by Giants and Shohei Ohtani by Fighters without a bid lottery.
- In the second round, Hiroyuki Shirasaki was selected by Baystars and Taichi Ishiyama by Swallows without a bid lottery.
- In the third round, Takahiro Matsuba was selected by Buffaloes and Hiroki Takahashi by Carp without a bid lottery.
- List of selected players.
Selected Players
- The order of the teams is the order of second round waiver priority.
- Bolded After that, a developmental player who contracted as a registered player under control.
- List of selected players.
Yokohama DeNA Baystars