Masashi Yokota

Masashi Yokota (横田 真之)

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 5' 8", Weight 165 lb.

• School Komazawa University
• High School Meitoku Gijuku High School

• Born November 26, 1962 in Nankoku, Kochi Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Masashi Yokota has played in Nippon Pro Baseball. His son Shintaro Yokota was an outfielder in the NPB, too.

The Chiba Lotte Marines drafted Yokota in the fourth round of the 1984 NPB draft, and the Marines also drafted his classmate Kono Hirofumi on the 1st round in the same year. Yokota debuted on April 6, 1985, and collected his first major league hit from Naoki Takahashi on April 13. In his rookie year, Yokota batted .300/.357/.433 with 9 homers, and ranked 10th in both batting average and steals. He lost the NPB Rookie of the Year Award to Terumitsu Kumano, but won his first Best Nine award as an outfielder, picked with Kumano and Leron Lee. Yokota extended his solid performance, as he recorded a .304/.344/.407 batting line with 8 dingers in 1986 season. Yokota was the first player in Pacific League to reach a .300 batting average in the first two seasons since joining the team. He ranked 9th in batting average, and won the Best Nine Award again. Yokota hit .281/.321/.406 with a career-high 26 steals in 1987, and led the league in triples with five.

The Kochi native batted .271/.317/.357 and .278/.323/.358 respectively in 1988 and 1989, then suffered a right elbow injury in 1990. After coming back, Yokota lost the starting outfielder spot, and recorded a .284/.328/.408 batting line in 1991. He only played 96 games in the 1992 season, then the Marines traded him and Takahiro Konno to the Chunichi Dragons for Masaru Uno and Kiyoyuki Nagashima. He recorded a 1-for-17 in the 1993 season, and the Dragons released him after he spent the entire season in the ni-gun in the 1994 season. The Seibu Lions picked him up, but he struggled again in the beginning of the 1995 season, then announced his retirement after being released again.

Overall, Yokota had hit .279/.329/.384 in 10 seasons in NPB.

Sources

• NPB site
• Wiki Japan