Teruaki Sato

Teruaki Sato (佐藤 輝明)

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 6' 1", Weight 207 lbs.

• School Kindai University
• High School Nigawa Gakuen High School

• Born March 13, 1999 in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Teruaki Sato has played in the Nippon Pro Baseball and set many rookie records.

Sato broke Tomohiro Nioka's Kansai 6 University Baseball League record by hitting 14 homers in a season in 2020, and four teams picked him in the first round of the 2020 NPB draft; the Hanshin Tigers won the lottery for his rights. Sato soon became one of the best hitters in the Central League in the beginning of the 2021 season. He was the first CL rookie to hit a homer in both of the his first two games, and set the NPB record for fewest games needed to reach 10 homers, with 33. On May 28, Sato became the first rookie since Shigeo Nagashima in 1958 to crush 3 home runs in a game, and the third homer was a clutch go-ahead three-run shot in the 9th inning and two outs. He was voted as a starting outfielder in the 2021 NPB All-Star Game, went 0-for-4 in Game 1 then blasted a solo shot against Hiroya Miyagi in Game 2. He broke Hiroshi Ohshita's NPB record for hitting 21 homers as a rookie left-hander player, then broke Koichi Tabuchi's team rookie homer record with his 23rd homer in this season. It seemed that the CL ROY winner was determined in July.

Although Sato set many homer records as a rookie, his K% was too high, so he also broke Kosuke Fukudome's rookie strikeout record and became the first rookie in NPB to strike out 5 times in a game. If he could continuously send the baseball out of the wall, nobody would care about how many strikeouts he received. However, when he couldn't hit the ball well as he did before the All-Star break, then his performance became extremely terrible. Sato was one of the most excellent sluggers in July, but his batting was worse than a pitcher in August. After having a 35 at-bat streak without any hits, he was demoted to ni-gun. That didn't help Sato find back his batting stroke, and he ended up tying Yoshifumi Okada's NPB record for 54 consecutive at-bats without a hit as a batter. He recorded a .238/.284/.466 batting line with 24 homers for the season, leading the CL in strikeouts with 173 and ranking 6th in homers (15 behind Munetaka Murakami). He got 8 votes for the 2021 Central League Rookie of the Year Award, finishing fourth behind Ryoji Kuribayashi's 201 votes, Shugo Maki's 76 and Yasunobu Okugawa's 12.

The Nishinomiya native improved in 2022, and he was voted into the 2022 NPB All-Star Games; he was 0-for-5. Sato played all 143 games in this season, hitting .264/.328/.470 with 20 homers and led the league in sacrifice flies. He ranked 8th in hits (18 behind Keita Sano), 11th in homers (36 behind Murakami) and 4th in RBI (50 behind Murakami). In the 2022 CLCS, Sato was 2-for-10 with a clutch game-tying solo shot against Haruhiro Hamaguchi in Game 3 and helped the Tigers beat the Yokohama BayStars in the first round. They faced the Yakult Swallows in the final stage, but Sato was 1-for-8 and the Tigers were swept by the Swallows

Sato improved a bit more in 2023, hitting .263/.339/.498 with 24 homers and became the first left-handed player to hit more than 20 homers in each of his first three seasons. He attended the 2023 NPB All-Star Games, and he went 2-for-2 with a double against Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 1; he pinch-hit and Roberto Osuna retired him in Game 2. Sato ranked 4th in homers (17 behind Kazuma Okamoto), 3rd in RBI (11 behind Shugo Maki) and 4th in doubles (9 behind Maki). In the 2023 CLCS, Sato was 2-for-12 and the Tigers swept the Hiroshima Carp to advance to the 2023 Nippon Series.