Toronto's newest Japanese baseball phenom
The Blue Jays may have missed out on Shoehei Ohtani and Roki Sasaki, but that doesn't mean there aren't great Japanese baseball players in Toronto.
Meet Ayami Sato, a pitcher with the Toronto Maple Leafs of the Intercounty Baseball League, who is considered by some to be the best female baseball player in the world.
Throwing close to 80mph, her curveball has an insane spin rate (some put the estimate at over 25 revolutions per minute). She also won five gold medals for her country as part of the Baseball World Cup, and is the only woman to have won three consecutive MVP awards.
In her debut season in Japan in 2013, Sato was 6-10 with a 2.23 ERA and led the league in strikeouts with 62. She only got better after that. Her best season was in 2016 when she went 9-3 with a 2.17 ERA, leading the league in both categories.
In December, she signed with the Maple Leafs and will begin to show off her skills to a Canadian audience.
Several notable Canadians have played in the IBL including former Blue Jays John Axford and Paul Spoljaric as well as Hall of Famer Ferguson Jenkins.
Leafs co-owner Keith Stein is also an investor in a new Women's Professional League that is set to begin in 2026. Maybe Sato will follow him there.
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