Takuya Hiruma of Waseda University, who was nominated first by Seibu in the professional baseball draft meeting, signed a provisional contract with the team, saying, "I want to do my best to become the face of the Lions."
Hiruma is an outfielder who has both offense and defense, such as being selected as a member of the Japan national team at university.
On the 30th, Hiruma negotiated with the team to join the team at a hotel in Tokyo, and signed a provisional contract with an estimated
contract fee of 100 million yen plus a performance payment of 50 million yen
and an annual salary of 16 million yen.
At the press conference, Hiruma said, "Today, I'm happy to finally be able to join the Lions after signing a contract with them. I'm going to be a professional baseball player, so I'll act with awareness."
After that, he said, "First of all, I want to focus on building my body so that I can get a solid start in the voluntary training of the newcomers. I want to do my best to become the face of the Lions and eventually a player who represents Japan." .