SIS is pleased to announce the winners of the 2026 NPB Fielding Bible Awards. 

This marks the seventh season that we have honored the best defensive players in NPB. The awards are chosen in a vote by a panel of experts who consider statistical analysis, the eye test, and any other factors that they wish to utilize.

We are also announcing the winners of the NPB Defensive Player of the Year and NPB Defensive Team of the Year awards.

This year’s winners are:

Player	Team
Team- SoftBank Hawks
Player of Year- Ukyo Shuto	SoftBank
C- Seishirō Sakamoto	Hanshin
1B- Tyler Nevin	Seibu
2B- Ryūsei Ogawa	Chiba Lotte
3B- Ryoya Kurihara	SoftBank
SS- Sōsuke Genda	Seibu
LF- Kensuke Kondoh	SoftBank
CF- Ukyo Shuto	SoftBank
RF- Mishō Nishikawa	Chiba Lotte
Multi- Natsuo Takizawa	Seibu
P- Haruto Inoue	Yomiuri

 

Defensive Player of the Year

SoftBank Hawks center fielder Ukyo Shuto won the Defensive Player of the Year award as well as the Fielding Bible Award for center field.

“Everyone who watches him says that he is a world-class center fielder,” said Fielding Bible voter Yuri Kurasawa.

Shuto led NPB center fielders in Defensive Runs Saved in 2026. This marks the third consecutive season that he’s won the Fielding Bible Award for center field. By comparison, in the 21-year history of MLB’s Fielding Bible Awards, no center fielder has won that award more than two years in a row.

For those unfamiliar, Defensive Runs Saved measures a player’s ability to turn batted balls into outs as well as other position-specific skills, such as turning double plays, blocking pitches in the dirt, or robbing home runs. Players are measured using the average NPB player as a baseline.

Defensive Team of the Year

The NPB champion SoftBank Hawks won our Defensive Team of the Year Award. SoftBank led all teams in Defensive Runs Saved this season and did not have negative Runs Saved at any of the nine positions on the diamond.

SoftBank had three position winners: Ryoya Kurihara at third base, Kensuke Kondoh in left field, and Player of the Year Ukyo Shuto in center field.

“They play fundamentally sound baseball,” said Fielding Bible voter Brandon Tew. “They just convert outs over and over again.”

Added Kurasawa: “They have immense depth. Their second and third guys at each position are totally sound.”

Other winners

This year’s Award winners came from five teams. Besides SoftBank’s winners, the Seibu Lions had three winners, the Chiba Lotte Marines had two, and the Yomiuri Giants and Hanshin Tigers each had one.

Seibu Lions shortstop Sosuke Genda won his fourth Fielding Bible Award at shortstop after not having won in 2024 and 2025. Genda and Shuto are the two players who have won four Fielding Bible Awards at their respective positions.

Repeat winners from 2025 were Hanshin Tigers catcher Seishiro Sakamoto, Seibu Lions first baseman Tyler Nevin, Chiba Lotte Marines right fielder Mishō Nishikawa, and multi-position standout Natsuo Takizawa of the Seibu Lions. 

Nishikawa won in right field a year after winning it in left field. He played those two positions almost equally in 2026. Nevin is the lone former MLB player to win. He’s had success in NPB after a four-year career in MLB with the Orioles, Tigers, and Athletics. 

Our expert voting panel consisted of NPB content creators Yuri Karasawa (Yakyu Cosmopolitan) and Yuta Sekiguchi (Mr. Bouono’s Diary) and Sports Info Solutions lead Brandon Tew, with oversight from Mark Simon, editorial lead at SIS.

“We are honored to once again reward the best defensive players in NPB,” Simon said. “We reconfigured Defensive Runs Saved for this season in order to compare NPB players to an average NPB player. This allowed us to get a better sense of who the top players in the league were and that is reflected in our voting.”

The NPB Fielding Bible Awards have been presented by SIS since 2020. SIS’ mission is to enhance and optimize the decision-making process for sports teams, sportsbooks, and sports fans. It has been an industry leader in baseball since its founding in 2002.