Hikaru Ito

Hikaru Ito (伊藤 光)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 168 lb.

• High School Meitoku Gijuku High School

• Born April 23, 1989 in Okazaki, Aichi Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Hikaru Ito has played in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Ito was drafted by the Orix Buffaloes in the third round of the 2007 NPB draft. He spent his rookie year in the NPB Farm Leagues, and debuted with the big club on September 13, 2008. However, the young catcher underwent a surgery to treat his herniated disc, and missed the entire 2009 season and most of the 2010 season. He came back and played 2 games on the end of the 2010 season. Ito collected his first Pacific League hit off Dennis Houlton on April 13 2011 season, and batted .156/.218/.238 with 2 homers in that season. He also fractured his right index finger and missed the rest of the season. In 2012, Ito, Fumihiro Suzuki and Toshio Saito shared the catcher spot for the Buffaloes. Ito batted .205/.222/.256 this year, and caught Yuki Nishi's No-hitter on October 8.

The Okazaki native broke out in 2013, when he recorded a .285/.327/.366 batting line with 3 homers. Ito started in Game 1 of the 2013 NPB All-Star Game, but Shinya Tsuruoka replaced him after Kenta Maeda retired him in the 2nd inning. In Game 2, he started again, retired by Tomoyuki Sugano in the 2nd inning, then recorded a single from Taichi Ishiyama in the 5th inning. 2014 was Ito's career year. Ito caught for Shota Ono in the late innings and didn't bat in Game 1 of the 2014 NPB All-Star Game. In Game 2, he started as the catcher but was retired twice by Shintaro Fujinami in the 2nd inning and Tomoyuki Sugano in the 4th inning. He ended up batting .257/.310/.332, and won both the Best Nine and the NPB Gold Glove awards. He helped the NPB All-Stars beat the MLB All-Stars 3 games to 2 in the 2014 Nichi-Bei Series, scoring three runs in the game 2 win. Ito struggled in 2015, as he only recorded a .271/.348/.328 batting line, and was even demoted to ni-gun on the middle of the season. On August 5, Ito's passed ball caused the Chiba Lotte Marines got the 1-0 win. He was the first Pacific League catcher to passed ball and gave his team a1-0 loss. When young Kenya Wakatsuki rose, Ito was turned into the backup catcher and only recorded a .241/.257/.326 batting line. His hitting declined to .189/.263/.332 in 2017, and had a 0-for-27 on the end of this season. Ito was demoted to ni-gun again after he recorded a 0-for-16 in the beginning of 2018. The Buffaloes then traded him with Ken Akama to the Yokohama BayStars for Hiroyuki Shirasaki and Shuto Takajo.

Ito bounced back after being traded. Although he missed the entire August due to a left finger fracture, he still batted .254/.352/.379 in 2019, and blasted a career-high 8 home runs. He announced that he would become a free agent after this season, and signed a 4-year, 45-million yen contract with the BayStars. However, Ito didn't bat well in the 2020 season, only recording a .216/.355/.314 batting line in 30 games, which was his lowest since the 2011 season. In 2021 and 2022, Ito was the backup catcher for the BayStars, and hit .213/.294/.288 and .277/.340/.351 respectively.