Ryoichi Adachi

Ryoichi Adachi (安達 了一)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 165 lb.

• School Jobu University
• High School Haruna High School

• Born January 7, 1988 in Takasaki, Gunma Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Ryoichi Adachi played in the Nippon Professional Baseball for 13 years.

Adachi played for Toshiba in the industrial leagues after college. With the Japanese national team in the 2011 Baseball World Cup, he was 4 for 16 with two doubles, 4 runs, a RBI and one steal. He fielded .889, while splitting time with Yohei Kawato at short. The Orix Buffaloes picked him in the first round of the 2011 NPB draft. He signed for a 100 million yen bonus, with 50 million yen in performance bonuses and a 15 million yen salary. He struggled as a rookie in 2012 (.159/.216/.216 in 50 G) as a backup infielder. He made his Nippon Pro Baseball debut as a pinch-runner for Aarom Baldiris. In his first plate appearance, he struck out against Tetsuya Yamaguchi. His first hit came off Tomohisa Ohtani.

He became Orix's main shortstop in 2013, with Keiji Obiki leaving the team. He hit .235/.299/.316 with 16 steals in 21 tries, fielding .983 at SS. His first homer came off Takayuki Kishi. He was 10th in the Pacific League in steals (between Yoshifumi Okada and Hideto Asamura) and second with 38 sacrifice hits (24 shy of leader Kenta Imamiya). He collected a career-high 29 steals in 2014, and his batting line was .259/.345/.356. Adachi was 5th in steals, between Esteban Germán and Takuya Nakashima. He crushed a career-high 11 homers with a .239/.310/.348 batting line in 2015. He improved to .273/.344/.323 in 2016, but his batting line fell to .203/.306/.278 in 2017.

Adachi struggled at the plate again in 2018, and he recorded a .219/.261/.277 batting line. Because of his elite defense, Adachi was still selected into the 2018 NPB All-Star Games, and he was 1-for-4, with a single against Randy Messenger in Game 1. He suffered from serious ulcerative colitis, so he only played 56 games with a .277/.354/.368 batting line in 2019. He hit .289/.353/.361 in 2017, then he played 100 games with a .259/.351/.302 batting line in 2021. Adachi recorded a .262/.349/.320 batting line in 2022, and he went 4-for-13 in the 2022 Nippon Series. The Buffaloes beat the Yakult Swallows in 7 games. He slumped to .183/.264/.183 in 2023, and he mainly stayed in the minors in 2024. His batting line was 8-for-37 for the big club, then he announced his retirement. He became the defense coach of Orix after retiring.

Overall, Adachi hit .245/.318/.318 with 906 hits and 36 homers in 13 seasons in the NPB.

Sources

• 2011 Baseball World Cup
• YakyuBaka
• Japanese Wikipedia entry
• NPB.com Bio