Takahiro Arai on Overcoming Last Season’s Challenges and Leading Hiroshima Carp to the Top

“Isn’t that FRIDAY-san? We’ve been waiting for you!”

The entrance was surprisingly cheerful. When the magazine reporter visited Mazda Stadium in early May, the Hiroshima Carp were in the middle of a seven-game losing streak. The team, missing key players like Shogo Sakakura (26), Shogo Akiyama (37), and Eleftherios Montero (26) due to injuries, was shrouded in a heavy atmosphere but —

“Well, there’s no use regretting what’s already happened. I don’t know how others around us feel, but considering so many of our main players are injured, I personally think it’s more than satisfactory that we’re maintaining a win rate around .500. There are 143 games in a season, so it’s not yet the time to panic.

Early in the season is the best chance for players who aren’t yet fixed regulars. Even if the main players get injured, I hope more young players can step up and say, ‘I’ll take over, so you guys take a rest.’”

That was my mistake

Behind the words of Takahiro Arai (48), woven from his carefree expression, there is a sense of reflection on the previous season. The Hiroshima Carp in 2024 saw tremendous performances from their four starting pitchers: Daichi Ohsera (33), Allen Kuri (33), Hiroki Tokoda (30), and Masato Morishita (27), who all showed their might, securing victories in low-scoring games with solid defense.

By August, they had increased their lead to 14 games, entering the final stretch of the season in first place. However, they experienced a sharp drop in September, suffering 20 losses in the month and falling to fourth place. In contrast, DeNA, who moved up to third place, made a remarkable rise and went on to become the champions of Japan.

“That was my mistake. The year before, our key hitters had been injured during the summer, so I tried not to repeat the same mistake. I made sure to rest the veteran hitters during the season and gave opportunities to the younger players, hoping to preserve everyone’s stamina. Hiroshima is the team with the most travel in the Central League, after all.

I thought it was going well, but in September, when I said, ‘Alright, let’s go full throttle from here!’ the players’ mental state became exhausted. Their physical strength was still there, but they couldn’t produce good performances.”

This was especially evident in the pitching staff. The team’s ERA, which had been in the 2-point range until August, worsened to the 4-point range in September.

“From mid-August, other teams started changing their starting rotations, putting their ace pitchers up against us, the league leaders. When facing pitchers like Shosei Togo (25) from the Giants, Katsuki Azuma (29) from DeNA, and Hiroto Takahashi (22) from the Dragons, our pitchers were mentally preparing themselves to not allow even a single run from the very first inning. As these types of games piled up, the mental fatigue grew significantly, and it became hard to switch gears.

So, this year, I really want to improve the team’s offensive power. Hitting isn’t something that can be improved overnight, so I need to be patient with it. If the regulars are struggling, I’ll give younger players opportunities to help raise the overall level of the batting lineup and the team as a whole.”

In the May 15 release of “FRIDAY” May 30th edition and the paid version FRIDAY GOLD, Arai talks about the essence of his Arai-style management.

For more details and multiple photos, click here↓.

From the June 6-13, 2025 issue of “FRIDAY”