Masataka Yoshida (吉田正尚 ''Yoshida Masataka'', born July 15, 1993) is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

for the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB). He started his professional career with

Orix Buffaloes The are a Nippon Professional Baseball team formed as a result of the 2004 Nippon Professional Baseball realignment by the merger of the Orix BlueWave of Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes of Osaka, Osaka Prefectur ...

Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''. Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation ...

(NPB).

Professional career

Japanese career

Yoshida played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

for

Aoyama Gakuin University is a private Christian university in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Originally established in 1874 by missionaries from the Methodist Episcopal Church, it was reconfigured in its current form in 1949 as part of Aoyama Gakuin. Aoyama Gakuin Universit ...

and was selected by the

in the first round of the 2015 NPB draft. Yoshida first played in NPB for Orix during the 2016 season, when he had a .290

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

with 10

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s and 34

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the bat ...

(RBIs) in 63 games. In 2017, he played 64 games with Orix, batting .311 with 12 home runs and 38 RBIs. In 2018 and 2019, he played 143 games each season, batting .321 and .322, respectively, with an aggregate 55 home runs and 171 RBIs for the two seasons. For 2020 through 2022, he had batting averages of .350, .339, and .335, with a total of 56 home runs and 224 RBIs in 349 games played across the three seasons. Yoshida hit two home runs in Game 5 of the

2022 Japan Series The 2022 Japan Series (known as the '' SMBC Nippon Series 2022'' for sponsorship reasons) was the championship series of Nippon Professional Baseball's season. The 73rd edition of the Japan Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the win ...

, including a walk-off; Orix won the series in seven games (one game ended in a tie) over the

Tokyo Yakult Swallows The Tokyo Yakult Swallows () are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Shinjuku, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Yom ...

. In seven seasons with Orix—2016 through 2022—Yoshida compiled a .327 batting average along with 467 RBIs and 133 home runs in 762 games.

MLB career

On December 7, 2022, Yoshida was posted by Orix and made available to all 30

(MLB) teams, opening a 30-day period to negotiate a contract. On December 15, Yoshida signed a five-year contract with the

, reportedly worth $90 million. In January 2023, he was ranked 87th in the ''

Baseball America ''Baseball America'' is a sports enterprise that covers baseball at every level, including MLB, with a particular focus on up-and-coming players in the MiLB, college, high school, and international leagues. It is currently published in the form o ...

'' list of baseball's top 100 prospects, as the publication includes NPB players joining MLB in their rankings. That ranking was considered "alarmingly low" by Peter Abraham, the Red Sox

beat writer Beat reporting, also known as specialized reporting, is a genre of journalism focused on a particular issue, sector, organization, or institution over time. Description Beat reporters build up a base of knowledge on and gain familiarity with th ...

for ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

''. On April 23, 2023, Yoshida hit two home runs in the same inning, including a

grand slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

, in a game against the

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division. The Brewers are named for t ...

. Yoshida was named

AL Player of the Week In Major League Baseball (MLB), the Player of the Week Award is given weekly during the regular season to two outstanding players, one each in the National League (NL) and American League (AL). The NL first awarded the honor during the season, an ...

for the week of May 1–7, having gone 12-for-25 with a 1.319

OPS In ancient Roman religion, Ops or ''Opis'' (Latin: "Plenty") was a fertility deity and earth goddess of Sabine origin. Her equivalent in Greek mythology was Rhea. Iconography In Ops' statues and coins, she is figured sitting down, as Chthon ...

and not a single swing and a miss in this period.

International career

Yoshida represented the

Japan national baseball team The is the national team representing Japan in international baseball competitions. It won the World Baseball Classic in 2006 and 2009, as well as WBSC Premier12 in 2019. The team is currently ranked 1st in the world by the World Baseball Sof ...

in the

2014 Haarlem Baseball Week The 2014 Haarlem Baseball Week was an international baseball competition held at the Pim Mulier Stadium in Haarlem, the Netherlands from July 11–20, 2014. It was the 27th edition of the tournament. In the final the United States won over Japa ...

2015 Summer Universiade ) , Nations participating = 143 , Athletes participating = 12,885 , Events = 272 in 21 sports , Opening ceremony = , Closing ceremony = , Officially opened by = Park Geun-hye , Athlete's Oath = Kim Seong-yeon and Kim Kuk-young , Judge's Oath = K ...

, 2019 exhibition games against

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, and

2019 WBSC Premier12 The 2019 WBSC Premier12 was an international baseball championship featuring the 12 highest-ranked national teams in the world, held by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC). It was the second WBSC Premier12 event. The championship ...

. On February 27, 2019, he was selected to the 2019 exhibition games against Mexico. On October 1, 2019, he was selected to the 2019 WBSC Premier12. In 2023, Yoshida represented Japan in the

World Baseball Classic The World Baseball Classic (WBC) is an international baseball tournament sanctioned from 2006 to 2013 by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) and after 2013 by World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) in partnership with Major Leagu ...

. He set a tournament record for RBIs with 13. At the end of the tournament, he was named to the All-Classic Team.

References

External links

, o
NPB.jp
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yoshida, Masataka 1993 births Living people Aoyama Gakuin University alumni Nippon Professional Baseball outfielders Major League Baseball outfielders Orix Buffaloes players Boston Red Sox players Baseball people from Fukui Prefecture People from Fukui (city) 2019 WBSC Premier12 players 2023 World Baseball Classic players Baseball players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic baseball players for Japan Olympic medalists in baseball Olympic gold medalists for Japan Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Major League Baseball players from Japan