Ayami Sato set for Los Angeles Queens debut in US pro women’s baseball

Ayami Sato, a six-time world champion and three-time World Cup MVP, will make her American debut as the starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Queens on Saturday after a professional career that has stretched across 16 years and three countries. She joins the new Women’s Professional Baseball League, the first professional women’s baseball circuit in the United States since the 1950s.

Across a career that began more than a decade ago, Sato has built a record of international and domestic success that underpins her reputation. The right-handed hurler is widely regarded as the finest pitcher in the history of women’s baseball and brings a résumé filled with awards and achievements to the WPBL. Her signing represents a rare cross-border move for a player of her stature and arrives as the league prepares to stage its inaugural season in the United States. The arrival of a player with her credentials is being viewed as a major endorsement of the new professional competition.

Sato’s pitching arsenal is a frequent point of note: her fastball has been recorded at nearly 80mph, and her curveball produces a spin rate that is higher than many Major League Baseball pitchers. Those traits have helped her dominate at international tournaments and in domestic leagues. Her ability to combine velocity with advanced movement has been a defining feature of her long-term success on the mound.

Internationally, Sato has been a fixture of the Japan National Team since 2010. During that time she has collected six gold medals, a tally that underscores her consistency at the highest level of women’s baseball. She also holds the unique distinction of being the only player in Women’s Baseball World Cup history to win three consecutive MVP awards, a run of individual recognition that accompanies her team accomplishments.

In domestic competition in Japan, Sato led Japan’s Women’s Baseball League in strikeouts in three of the last four seasons, a statistical indicator of her sustained dominance. Those seasons helped cement her status as a leading figure in the sport at home before she expanded her professional résumé abroad. Her record of strikeout leadership reflects both her longevity and her capacity to maintain elite performance across multiple campaigns.

Sato continued to break new ground in 2024 when she became the first woman to play professional baseball in Canada as a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the Intercounty Baseball League. That milestone added another country to the three-nation span of her career and provided further evidence of her willingness to compete across different professional environments.

Her start for the Los Angeles Queens on Saturday will mark Sato’s entry into the American professional scene and a notable moment for the WPBL as it launches. The move brings one of the sport’s most decorated pitchers to the United States and is likely to draw attention to the fledgling league as it seeks to establish itself domestically.