Yasutaka Shiomi

Yasutaka Shiomi (塩見 泰隆)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 167 lb.

• School Teikyo University
• High School Buso High School

• Born June 12, 1993 in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Yasutaka Shiomi has been an All-Star in Japan.

Shiomi hit .279 in college then went to play in Japan's industrial leagues. The Yakult Swallows took him in the 4th round of the 2017 NPB draft, their second position player that year after Munetaka Murakami. He was only 1 for 25 with a walk in 2018. His first NPB at-bat came against Kris Johnson and his only hit was off Suguru Iwazaki. He was much better on the farm at .329/.418/.593 with 22 steals in 24 tries. He tied Kotaro Yamasaki for third in the Eastern League in swipes. He won the best batter award in the Asia Winter Baseball League.

He spent most of 2019 on the farm (.310/.430/.579, 16 HR, 23 SB in 74 G) and hit .182/.265/.284 in 45 games (98 PA) for the top team. Only Hisanori Yasuda hit more homers in the EL and only Kakeru Yamanobe stole more bases. His first Central League homer came off Haruto Takahashi. In 2020, he hit .279/.369/.487 in 43 games for Yakult, going 13-for-15 in steals, and hit .293/.377/.397 in 18 games in the minors. Becoming Yakult's starting center fielder and leadoff man in 2021, he produced at a .279/.357/.441 clip with 7 triples, 80 runs, 14 homers, 21 steals in 26 tries and 156 whiffs in 474 at-bats. He hit for the cycle once. He was 5th in the CL in runs (between Murakami and Seiya Suzuki), first in triples (one ahead of Kaito Kozono), was third in steals (behind Takumu Nakano and Koji Chikamoto) and was second in strikeouts (17 behind Teruaki Sato). He made the Best Nine as one of the CL's top three outfielders; his 106 votes were well behind the other outfielders picked, Suzuki (296) and Chikamoto (276) but well ahead of #4 Keita Sano (68). He was 9th in voting for the 2021 Central League Most Valuable Player Award, between Nori Aoki and Ryoji Kuribayashi. Yakult went to the 2021 Japan Series and he scored the Series winner in Game 6, singling off Ryo Yoshida in the 12th and coming around on a hit by Shingo Kawabata; that gave Yakult their first Series win in 20 years. He batted .250/.387/.250 for the Series.

The Kanagawa native was steady in 2022 at .276/.345/.453, cutting his Ks to 122. He had 83 runs, 30 doubles, 6 triples, 16 homers and 24 steals in 31 tries while fielding .994 in center. He made CL leaderboards for outfield putouts (303, 1st), runs (2nd, 31 behind MVP Murakami), doubles (7th), triples (tied Kozono and Naoki Yoshikawa for 3rd), steals (tied Yuki Okabayashi for 2nd, 6 behind Chikamoto) and hit-by-pitch (12, 1st, 2 more than Shugo Maki and Shogo Sakakura). He made the CL team for the 2022 NPB All-Star Games, leading off both games and manning center. In the opener, he led off with a single off Tomohisa Ozeki and scored on a Maki sac fly later. He was 0 for 6 over the rest of the game and in Game 2. He also scored the first run of the 2022 Japan Series, a rematch with the Orix Buffaloes, singling off Sawamura Award winner Yoshinobu Yamamoto and scoring on a double by José Osuna. He later homered off Yamamoto. He came the closest to scoring in Game 4 with a one-out triple off Taisuke Yamaoka in the 5th but was stranded. His leadoff single in Game 6 off Sachiya Yamasaki was all that saved Yakult from being no-hit. The Swallows fell in seven games. He batted .357/.455/.571 as a bright spot for Yakult with five runs. He led the team in runs (one more than Murakami) and OBP and was second to Osuna in hits and OPS; Osuna won the Fighting Spirit Award as the MVP of the losing team but Shiomi was awarded as one of the Series's best players. Shiomi did not repeat in the Best Nine but came close with 130 votes, more than he had in '21 and 11 behind #3 Yuki Okabayashi (Chikamoto and Sano were the top two vote-getters). He did win a Gold Glove, joining Chikamoto and Okabayashi as the CL outfielders. He was 5th in voting for the 2022 CL MVP, between Maki and Noboru Shimizu.