Yohei Oshima

Yohei Oshima (大島 洋平)

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 5' 9", Weight 162 lb.
• School Komazawa University
• High School Kyoei High School

• Born November 9, 1985 in Nagoya, Aichi Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Yohei Oshima played in Nippon Pro Baseball and collected more than 2,000 hits.

Oshima won a collegiate batting crown in the Tohto University Base Ball League in 2007. He played for Nihon Life Insurance in the Industrial League. The Chunichi Dragons picked him in the 5th round of the 2009 NPB draft. He made the big club right away and got his first start on March 26, 2010 in center field. The next day, he got his first hit, a single off Giancarlo Alvarado that hit teammate Wei-Yin Chen. He wound up as Chunichi's primary center fielder that year; he batted .258/.323/.315 in 104 games. He was 5th in the Central League with 27 sacrifice hits and tied for 8th with 4 triples. In the 2010 Japan Series, he had a 2-run double in Chunichi's Game 2 win. In Game 4, he hit a 11th-inning triple off Yoshihiro Ito to score Hidenori Kuramoto with the winner in a 4-3 game to tie the Series at two. Chunichi fell in seven, though.

The Nagoya native slumped to .243/.318/.320 in 2011, and struggled in the 2011 Nippon Series; He was only 1-for-13 with a steal, and the Dragons were beaten by the Softbank Hawks. Oshima broke out in 2012, hitting .310/.376/.368 and led the Central League in steals with 32. He also ranked 3rd in batting (.031 behind Shinnosuke Abe), 3rd in hits (1 behind Hayato Sakamoto and Hisayoshi Chono) and 3rd in runs (4 behind Sakamoto). However, because the batting of the Dragons was very weak (and also because he hit leadoff), Oshima only had 13 RBI despite his 172 hits. That's the 3rd-lowest total in NPB history for a player who qualified to win batting title. Oshima was 3-for-6 in the 2012 NPB All-Star Games, and also won his only Best Nine award as an outfielder and his second NPB Gold Glove. He finished 9th in voting for the 2012 Central League Most Valuable Player Award, between Kentaro Nishimura and Tomoaki Kanemoto; he was the only Dragon to get votes that year.

Oshima made onto Japan's 28-man roster for the 2013 World Baseball Classic, but he withdrew due to a left elbow injury. That injury troubled him for the entire 2013 season, and he only batted .248/.306/.311with 19 steals. He still managed to attended the 2013 NPB All-Star Game, but went 0-for-3. Oshima came back in 2014 and he had a .318/.369/.366 batting line with 28 swipes. He was 4th in batting (.02 behind Matt Murton), 2nd in steals (11 behind Takayuki Kajitani) and 3rd in hits (7 behind Tetsuto Yamada); he won another Gold Glove award. Oshima was also selected into the 2014 NPB All-Star Game, but he went 0-for-2, with two steals in the 4th inning of Game 1.

The Chunichi leadoff hitter declined a little in 2015 as he only hit .260/.313/.342 with 22 steals, but he bounced back soon. Oshima batted .292/.348/.382 in 2016 with a league-leading 9 triples, and won his fifth Gold Glove award. He also completed his first cycle on July 20. Oshima ranked 2nd in hits (6 behind Ryosuke Kikuchi), 7th in runs (22 behind Yamada) and 3rd in swipes (4 behind Yamada) in this year. He became chairman of the Japan Professional Baseball Players Association that winter. He also appeared in the 2017 NPB All-Star Games, and went 1-for-3. He ended up hitting .313/.365/.387 in 2017 with 23 steals, ranked 3rd in batting (.01 behind Toshiro Miyazaki), 10th in hits (22 behind Yoshihiro Maru) and 2nd in steals (12 behind Kosuke Tanaka).

Oshima had a .274/.329/.367 batting line with 7 homers in 2018, and he broke his personal bests for most homers and RBI in a season. He ranked 8th in hits (17 behind Dayán Viciedo) and 4th in steals (12 behind Yamada) and won another Gold Glove award. The Nagoya native bounced back with a .312/.376/.380 batting line and 30 steals in 2019, led the league in hits, ranked 4th in batting (.023 behind Seiya Suzuki) and 3rd in steals (6 behind Koji Chikamoto). He was still productive in 2020, led the league in hits again and won his 8th Gold Glove Award. He ranked 4th in batting (.012 behind Keita Sano) and 2nd in steals (15 behind Chikamoto).

The veteran was 0 for 6 in the 2021 NPB All-Star Games. He recorded a .292/.345/.350 batting line with 16 steals in 2021, ranked 9th in batting (.025 behind Suzuki), 4th in hits (18 behind Chikamoto) and won his ninth Gold Glove. Oshima broke the team record when he collected 6 hits in a game on August 3 in the next season, and ended up hitting .314/.376/.367 with 137 hits. He was only .004 shy of robbing the CL batting title from Triple Crown winner Munetaka Murakami.

On August 26, 2023, Oshima collected his 2,000th career hit, off Kenta Ishida, and became the 78th player to join the meikyukai. He needed only 14 years to reach this benchmark, tying Isao Harimoto for fewest seasons to reach the meikyukai. He also became the first Nagoya native in Chunichi history to had 2,000 hits.

Related Sites

• Wiki Japan
• NPB.com Bio