Former large league outfielder and present member of Nippon Skilled Baseball’s Yakult Swallows Nori Aoki is ready to retire following the 2024 marketing campaign, per an announcement from the Swallows yesterday (hat tip to The Yomiuri Shimbun). Aoki, 42, spent elements of six seasons within the majors along with a prolonged profession in Japan.
Aoki’s profession first started with the Swallows again in 2004 when he debuted on the age of twenty-two. He made it into simply ten video games with Yakult that 12 months, going 3-for-15 on the plate with a stroll, a stolen base, and 6 strikeouts. That tiny pattern dimension did nothing to recommend what Aoki would go on to do in his first full season with the membership, nonetheless, as he slashed a wonderful .344/.387/.417 in 144 video games in the course of the 2005 season, changing into simply the second participant in NPB historical past (after Ichiro Suzuki) to gather 200 hits in a single season.
He improved to even higher heights all through his mid-20s, slashing 15-to-20 homer energy to associate with improbable contact and baserunning abilities. As his plate discpline developed, he even started to stroll greater than he struck out, resulting in a dominant stretch of seasons from 2007 to 2010 the place he walked at a ten.6% clip towards a minuscule 9.8% strikeout fee along with his aforementioned stable energy and spectacular base-stealing talents, and even crossed the 200-hit barrier for a second time in 2010 to grow to be the one NPB participant in historical past to realize the feat twice.
Given the excellence he had demonstrated all through his time with the Swallows, it was hardly a shock when he was rapidly snapped up by the Brewers on a two-year deal after being posted for main league golf equipment previous to the 2012 season. In Milwaukee, Aoki was a barely above common hitter with a stable .287/.355/.399 slash line. Whereas he solely hit a mixed 18 house runs over his two seasons with the Brewers, he swiped 50 luggage whereas hitting 57 doubles and seven triples in that very same interval. That was a robust sufficient efficiency for Milwaukee brass to select up Aoki’s membership possibility for the 2014 season, however he didn’t final the offseason with the membership and was swapped to the Royals in a deal that introduced lefty Will Smith to the Brewers.
After departing the Brewers, Aoki wouldn’t stick round with an MLB membership for greater than a season on the time for the remainder of his time in stateside ball. After appearing because the common proper fielder in Kansas Metropolis for the membership’s AL pennant-winning 2014 season, Aoki departed in free company to signal with the Giants however was restricted to simply 93 video games when he suffered a damaged leg and a concussion in two separate hit-by-pitch incidents. Aoki then signed a one-year cope with the Mariners in 2016 however started to point out some indicators of decline, notably stealing solely seven bases in sixteen makes an attempt with the worst strikeout and stroll numbers of his MLB profession, although he did show his greatest energy numbers since his rookie 2012 marketing campaign with the Brewers.
Aoki’s last season within the large leagues got here again in 2017 and noticed him change uniforms a number of occasions. The veteran outfielder was claimed off waivers from the Mariners by the Astros in the course of the 2016-17 offseason. Aoki struggled considerably via 70 video games with Houston, nonetheless, and ended up traded to the Blue Jays on the deadline that 12 months alongside Teoscar Hernandez in a deal that introduced Francisco Liriano to Houston. Aoki managed to catch fireplace down the stretch, nonetheless, and whereas his enjoying time was additional cut up between the Blue Jays and Mets over the ultimate two months of the season he slashed .281/.294/.594 for Toronto in August earlier than slashing .284/.371/.373 in Queens that September.
Following the tip of his MLB profession, Aoki returned house to the Swallows and has performed for the membership in every of the previous seven seasons. Now 42, the veteran is the league’s oldest lively participant and has collected greater than 7,000 plate appearances with a .313/.392/.445 slash line in 1,713 NPB video games. Between NPB and MLB play, Aoki has stepped as much as the plate greater than 10,000 occasions with 2,765 hits, 470 doubles, 51 triples, 179 homers and 279 stolen bases. We at MLBTR congratulate Aoki on a positive profession and need him all the very best in his post-playing pursuits.
