The Story So Far: Chiba Lotte Marines, 2025 Season (Through May)

This is a summary of the 2025 season through the end of May, before the start of interleague play on June 3rd. A proper team history will follow in a future post.

The Chiba Lotte Marines are my favorite team in Japan. The team is named after their home stadium, ZOZO Marine, and the idea of marines as heroes of the sea. The logo and mascots are seagulls because of the proximity to the ocean. Marines fans have a reputation for being the rowdiest and most energetic supporters in Japan. That energy and passion is why I became a Lotte fan. Even when the team is playing poorly, the supporters never give up. Well, they just might have to this year.

The Marines have not been Japan Series champions since 2010. They have not been Pacific League champions since 1974*. Still, there was reason for optimism heading into the 2025 season. Under manager Masato Yoshii, they had made the playoffs in the previous two seasons and 2025 was to be the culmination of the “Vision 2025”* philosophy. Announced in 2021, Lotte was supposed to turn into perennial contenders by the year 2025.

*How could they win the Japan Series but not be league champions? Unlike MLB, Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) only considers the team who finishes the regular season with the best record to be the pennant winner. Postseason results are a separate matter.

Lotte lost talented young pitcher Roki Sasaki to the Dodgers and veteran foreign pitcher CC Mercedes to the Uni-President Lions of the Chinese Professional Baseball League but the team’s lineup mostly remained the same. They signed Shuta Ishikawa from the Softbank Hawks to replace Sasaki and Austin Voth and Bryan Sammons from the majors with the expectation that one or both of them could replicate Mercedes’ 2024 All-Star season, while hoping that their young pitchers like Haruya Tanaka and Shunsuke Nakamori would develop into reliable contributors.

The season got off to a promising start. They swept the defending pennant winners, the team that had the best record in Japan, the team with the most success over the last 20 years, the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks, in three games on the road. Hopes were high. Vision 2025 had arrived right on time.

Lotte faltered a bit after that, finishing April with a record of 11-13, 3.5 games back of first place. They lost the last two games of the month, but there was no reason to panic. The 2024 Marines lost 7 games in a row at one point then went undefeated for 12 games. They could do it again.

Turns out there was reason to panic. The Marines went an unbelievable 6-17 in May. The team was shut out 6 times, including three straight from the 9th to the 11th, and finished the month a staggering 10.5 games out of first place, dead last in the league. What went wrong?

Everything. Lotte can’t hit or pitch. The team batting average was .208 in April, .219 in May. The team ERA had been a respectable 2.74 (4th out of 6 in the league) in April but rose to 4.09 in May. With struggles on both sides of the ball, they have the worst run differential in the league at -49.

Base running isn’t much better, though that might be a fault with team strategy rather than the players. Lotte remains last in the league in stolen bases despite having three former stolen base leaders on the roster*. They’ve also given up the most stolen bases, 50, while only throwing out 6 base stealers. Six. A single or walk against Lotte is as good as a double.

*Akito Takabe with 44 in ‘22, Takashi Ogino and Koshiro Wada with 24 in ‘21. Ogino is my wife’s favorite player but is 39 years old and hasn’t appeared in a game due to injury.

Masato Yoshii is in trouble. He trots out different lineups almost every day to find something that works but nothing sticks. He openly criticizes his players to the media, including ace pitcher Kazuya Ojima. Lotte is a longshot to make the playoffs and there are rumors that Yoshii may quit or be fired. Let’s take a look at some of the biggest disappointments so far.

Toshiya Sato - Catcher

Sato had a breakout year in 2024, being named to his first All-Star team and winning All-Star Game MVP honors in the second game*. He was also named Best Nine, an annual distinction given to the best player at each position. Sato was then appointed to the national team, Samurai Japan, for the November WBSC Premier12 tournament.

*There are two All-Star games a year, one in a Central League stadium and the other in a Pacific League stadium.

This year, Sato broke his toe during spring training but still made the Opening Day roster. He hit a home run on Opening Day, giving the impression he was fine. He was not.

Sato has struggled mightily on both sides of the ball since then. He has only managed 6 hits in 70 plate appearances and the opposing team is 19/20 on stolen bases with him behind the plate.

His extended slump has allowed for the emergence of 19-year-old Ryusei Terachi. But relying on a teenager to call games and lead your offense is a lot of pressure.

Foreign Batters

Only 4 foreign players can be on the active roster in NPB, with a maximum of 3 position players or 3 pitchers. Foreign batters are supposed to have a lot of power and are put under a microscope in a different way than Japanese batters.

Lotte’s foreign bats, Gregory Polanco and Neftali Soto, were supposed to carry the team. Both are incredibly popular with fans. Both are former home-run kings - Polanco with Lotte in 2023 and Soto with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars in 2018 and 2019.

Polanco, the nominal Lotte designated hitter, is known for his trademark power but it seems to have vanished. He tied for the league lead in home runs in 2023 and led the team in home runs and slugging percentage in 2024. So far, Polanco has only hit 4 home runs this season, slugging a mere .308, and has been demoted to the farm twice. At 33 years old, this may be his last season in Chiba.

Soto is in his second year with the Marines and plays first base. He was a star with Yokohama but age has sapped him of his abilities. Still, Soto was a force in 2024, leading the team in OPS, RBIs, and plate appearances. Unfortunately, he also grounded into more double plays than any other player in the Pacific League.

This year, time seems to have finally caught up with him. Soto leads the team with six home runs, but is slugging just .335 and batting a mere .184. There have been calls online to demote him to the farm, though there aren’t really any suitable replacement candidates.

Relievers

For an offense that barely scores, relievers need to be nearly perfect. Unfortunately, that has not been the case. During their putrid May, Lotte relievers had the worst ERA in Japan.

Veteran closer Naoya Masuda was demoted to the farm on May 3rd. In only seven games, he has an ERA of 6.75. He’s at 246 career saves, only four from joining the Golden Players Club*, so it’s likely he’ll be back at some point.

*The Golden Players Club, or Meikyukai, is one of two Hall of Fames in Japan. Players are automatically inducted into the Golden Players club if they reach certain career milestones such as 2000 hits or 250 saves in Japanese professional baseball.

Tayron Guerrero, who pitched for the Marines in 2022, was brought in to bolster the relief corps and fill their foreign pitcher quota. He wasn’t especially effective in his first stint but he throws hard. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been any better in his second stint. He was demoted to the farm on May 14th, where he posted an ERA of 6.00, before being brought back up on the 27th. Currently sporting a 4.26 ERA and directly responsible for three losses, I can’t imagine he'll be brought back next season.

Shota Suzuki was lights out in 2024, posting an ERA of 0.73 in 51 appearances. Like Toshiya Sato, he also made his first All-Star game and was appointed to the national team for the Premier12 tournament.

This year, however, he has not looked the same. His velocity was down in spring training but, like the rest of the team, made it through April relatively unscathed. However, like the rest of the team, he began to fall apart in May. Perhaps due to the pressure of replacing the veteran Masuda as the bullpen ace, Suzuki posted a 6.35 ERA in the month. Without a reliable pitcher at the end of the bullpen, it is hard for any team to close out wins.

It hasn’t been all bad, though. Yuto Kimura, who turned 20 on June 1st, has been a pleasant surprise in relief.

Looking Ahead

On June 2nd, Lotte announced some overdue coaching changes. Rather than firing Yoshii, they reassigned second-team manager and former star player Saburo to the role of head coach. Meanwhile, strategy coach Makoto Kaneko was reassigned to be the baserunning coach. Yoshii was still the first team manager but Saburo would now be dictating the lineup and strategy. It’s probably too little, too late but it at least gives fans something to look forward to.

Not that Marines fans ever need a reason to cheer. After all, the official team song is We Love Marines.

Yes, we do love the Marines. And Thomas loves seagulls.