Kazuo Matsui, who served as head coach this season, will be appointed as the new manager of professional baseball club Seibu.
Seibu announced the retirement of director Hatsuhiko Tsuji on the 9th of this month, when the first stage of the climax series was decided, and was proceeding with the selection of a successor.
According to team officials, Matsui, who served as the head coach this season, was asked to take over as manager, and he himself accepted.
The official announcement will be made on the 13th.
Mr. Matsui is 46 years old from Osaka Prefecture.
In 1994, he joined Seibu in 3rd place in the draft from PL Gakuen in Osaka.
Then, after playing for three teams in the major leagues, he returned to the Japanese baseball world, and after playing seven years at Rakuten, retired in 2018 at his old home, Seibu.
His total number of hits in Japan and the United States was 2705.
The year after he retired, he served as Seibu's 2nd army coach, and this season, he supported Tsuji as the 1st army head coach.
Matsui is expected to rebuild the batting team, which has the lowest batting average in the league this season, and win the league title for the first time since 2019.