A baseball distribution draft to divvy up the 107 players between the newly formed Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles and the merged club being created between the Orix BlueWave and the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes was held Monday.
Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles' general manager Marty Kuehnert (right) and Orix Buffaloes' new manager Akira Ogi answer questions following the distribution draft.
Kintetsu outfielder Koichi Isobe was among the unprotected players chosen by Rakuten while teammates Norihiro Nakamura, Hisashi Iwakuma and Hirotoshi Kitagawa were each selected to play for the merged team.
Akira Ogi, who will manage the merged team, and Orix BlueWave general manager Katsuhiro Nakamura were among those attending the Osaka meeting along with Rakuten manager Yasushi Tao and team general manager Marty Kuehnert.