Hideto Asamura

Hideto Asamura (浅村 栄斗)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 171 lb.

• High School Osaka Toin High School

• Born November 12, 1990 in Osaka, Osaka Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Hideto Asamura won seven Best Nine Awards in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Asamura hit 22 home runs in high school; he helped his team win the 2008 spring Koshien. The Seibu Lions drafted him in the third round of the 2008 NPB draft; the scout was Mitsutaka Goto. He made his debut with the big club on March 31, 2010, pinch-hitting for Tomoaki Sato and doubling off Sho Iwasaki to drive in a run. He hit his first homer August 10 off Hiroki Yamamura. He hit .262/.407/.476 in 55 plate appearances over 30 games as a backup utility infielder. In 2011, he batted .268/.327/.382 and was Seibu's most-used player at 1B (81 G) and LF (52 G). He got one of the 214 votes for the 2011 Pacific League Rookie of the Year Award.

In 2012, Asamura's batting line was .245/.307/.376 with 7 triples and 13 steals in 20 tries; he fielded .992 in 71 games at 1B and .965 in 56 games at 2B. He tied Nobuhiro Matsuda for second in the Pacific League in three-baggers, one behind Shogo Akiyama. At age 22, Asamura blossomed in 2013. He hit .317/.388/.554 with 38 doubles, 27 home runs, 85 runs and 110 RBI in 144 games while fielding .997 at 1B. He was among the Pacific League leaders in average (5th, between Ginji Akaminai and Seiichi Uchikawa), OBP (7th, between Tadahito Iguchi and Yoshio Itoi), slugging (1st by .004 over Sho Nakata), OPS (1st by 11 points over Nakata), total bases (301, 1st by 5 over Yuya Hasegawa), runs (5th, between Matsuda and Andruw Jones), hits (172, 3rd behind Hasegawa and Uchikawa), doubles (1st by 5 over Itoi and Uchikawa), triples (5, tied for 5th), homers (4th behind Michel Abreu, Nakata and Casey McGehee), RBI (1st by 15 over Abreu) and walks (61, 9th, between Dae-ho Lee and Abreu). He easily won the Best Nine nod at 1B in the PL, with 188 of 228 votes (Akaminai had 27, Lee 9 and Iguchi 4), and he also collected his first NPB Gold Glove award. He was 5th in voting for the 2013 Pacific League Most Valuable Player Award behind Masahiro Tanaka, Hasegawa, McGehee and Takahiro Norimoto.

Asamura was moved to second base in 2014, and he crushed 14 homers with a .273/.345/.416 batting line in 118 games. He underwent left shoulder surgery and missed about a month. Asamura came back in 2015 with a .270/.362/.385 batting line and 13 homers, and he was 8th in hits (tied with Takeya Nakamura). He crushed 24 homers with a solid .309/.357/.510 batting line in 2016, and he won his first Best Nine as a second baseman. Asamura also led the league in total bases and doubles, and he was 3rd in batting (between Haruki Nishikawa and Yoshio Itoi), 8th in RBI (between Matsuda and Takahiro Okada), 6th in homers (tied with Alfredo Despaigne), 2nd in hits (6 behind Katsuya Kakunaka) and 10th in runs (tied with Ernesto Mejia). He was 2-for-4 with a homers against Shoichi Ino in the 2016 NPB All-Star Game 2, and he won the fighting spirit award.

The Osaka native got his 1,000 career hits on September 28, 2017 against Hayato Terahara, and he was the first player who was born in Heisei era to reach this benchmark. Asamura was also selected into the 2017 NPB All-Star Game, but he was 0-for-4. He ended up hitting .291/.347/.453 with 19 homers that season, and he was 2nd in hits (18 behind Shogo Akiyama), 2nd in doubles (2 behind Akiyama), 6th in batting (between Akaminai and Hiroyuki Nakajima) and 2nd in RBI (tied with Yuki Yanagita). He won the Best Nine again. Asamura then blasted 32 homers with a .310/.383/.527 batting line in 2018, and he broke Seibu's team record with 127 RBI. He was also the first Japanese player in Seibu's history to hit .300, 30 homers and 100 RBI. In the 2018 NPB All-Star Game 2, he went 2-for-2 with a double to win the fighting spirit award. He led the league in RBI, and he was 3rd in runs (between Akiyama and Yanagita), 2nd in hits (20 behind Akiyama), 9th in doubles (tied with Sosuke Genda and Daichi Suzuki), 3rd in homers (tied with Masuda) and 4th in batting (between Masataka Yoshida and Akira Nakamura). He won his third straight Best Nine awards as a second baseman.

Asamura announced that he would became a free agent after that season, and he signed a 4-year 2-billion yen contract with the Rakuten Golden Eagles. He extended his solid performance in 2019, hitting .263/.372/.507 with 33 homers and 92 RBI. He was 10th in doubles (tied with Haruki Nishikawa), 3rd in homers (tied with Jabari Blash) and 5th in RBI (between Blash and Shuta Tonosaki). In the 2019 PLCS, Asamura set the Climax Series record with 4 homers, and he also hit a homer in three straight games. However, the Softbank Hawks still eliminated the Golden Eagles. He won his fourth Best Nine, and he collected his first NPB Gold Glove award as a second baseman.

In the 2019 Premier 12, Asamura hit .360/.450/.400 with 3 doubles to help Japan won Gold. He set Rakuten's team record by getting 5 RBI in an inning on June 27, 2020, and he also tied the team record with 7 RBI in a game. He recorded a .280/.408/.560 batting line with 32 homers in that season, and he led the league in homers. He was also 8th in hits (between Genda and Ryo Watanabe), 4th in doubles (tied with Shogo Nakamura), 9th in batting (between Hiroaki Shimauchi and Taishi Ota) and 2nd in RBI (4 behind Sho Nakata). He won his 5th Best Nine awards as a second baseman. Asamura blasted 18 homers with a .269/.395/.422 batting line in 2021, and he led the league with 101 walks. He was also 9th in homers (tied with T.Nakamura) and 10th in RBI (tied with S.Nakamura).

Asamura represented Japan in the 2020 Olympics, and he hit .294/.429/.412 with 2 doubles to help Japan won Gold. He hit .252/.365/.436 with 27 homers in 2022, and he got the Best Nine awards again. He was 5th in hits (between Go Matsumoto and Kenta Imamiya), 2nd in homers (14 behind Hotaka Yamakawa) and 3rd in RBI (4 behind Yamakawa). On September 14, 2023, Asamura broke Kazuo Matsui's PL record with a 1,145 consecutive games played streak. He blasted 26 homers with a .274/.368/.462 batting line in 2023, and he led the league in homers (tied with Gregory Polanco and Kensuke Kondo). He was also 3rd in hits (between Kondo and Chusei Mannami), 3rd in RBI (between Yanagita and Polanco) and 8th in batting (between A.Nakamura and Keita Nakagawa). He won his 7th Best Nine awards as a second baseman.

The 2024 season was a down year for Asamura, and he only crushed 14 homers with a .253/.346/.382 batting line. He led the league in sacrifice flies, and he was 10th in homers (20 behind Yamakawa) and 6th in RBI (tied with Mannami and Polanco).

Sources

• Wiki Japan