With the World Baseball Classic coming up, it’s nice to look back on how far the tournament has come since its inception in 2006. If you look at the rosters from that year’s tournament, there are several players who were or would end up playing for the Royals. Guys like Matt Stairs, Bruce Chen, and Benji Gil would all end up playing for the Royals at some point. However, there is one player who really stands out among the rest. This future Royals player would be labeled the next Ichiro and have one of the most storied careers in recent Japanese baseball history; he’s also a one-time Royals player. This player is Nori Aoki, and his journey to the Royals was a rather interesting one.
Norichika Aoki was born on January 5th, 1982, in Hyuka, Miyazaki, Japan. He started playing baseball at an early age and later attended Miyazaki Prefectural Hyuga High School. He was a pitcher all throughout high school, but converted to outfield when he attended Waseda University in 2000. Aoki was just one of several talented players who led Waseda to four straight Tokyo Big6 titles, Japan’s version of the NCAA. Aoki played alongside future pros like Takashi Toritani, Shintaro Yoshida, and Tsuyoshi Wada. Throughout his college career, Aoki had a batting average of .332 without hitting a single home run while also being selected for the Best Nine Award three times. He would be drafted in the fourth round of the Nippon Professional Baseball draft by the Yakult Swallows.
Aoki would only play 10 games in 2004, but 2005 would kickstart his illustrious career in NPB. He would finish the year with the Most Valuable Rookie award and the Central League Batting Title. He hit .344, stole 41 bases, and collected 202 hits, becoming just the second player in NPB history to record 200 hits in a season. He would build off that success the next year, participating in that year’s World Baseball Classic, and be named All-Star Game MVP in his home ballpark. He would finish the year with 192 hits, eight short of his goal, but would increase his on-base percentage by nine points. He expressed interest in going to the MLB via the posting system, but the Swallows were not interested in selling him.
The next five seasons would cement Aoki’s name as one of the best contact hitters in NPB history. He would rack up 887 hits and had a batting average under .300 once in that timespan. He would become the fastest player in NPB history to collect 500 hits, doing so in 373 games. He won the batting title two more times in 2007 and 2010, and was given an All-Star, Best Nine, and Golden Glove every year during this time period. After the 2011 season, he was posted by the Swallows and signed a two-year deal with the Brewers.
He would put up solid numbers during his time in Milwaukee, posting a bWAR of 3.2, a batting average of .288, and finishing fifth in NL Rookie of the Year voting in 2012. He would be the everyday right fielder, where he would start hot but steadily decline throughout the year, finishing with a batting average of .286. He would then be flipped to Kansas City on December 5th, 2013, and would begin a memorable tenure with the Royals.
Aoki would be the leadoff hitter for a majority of the season and finished the year with a triple slash of .285/.349/.360. He would hit exactly one home run during his time in Kansas City, and it was a grand slam against the Diamondbacks on August 6th. It would be the only grand slam he would hit while in MLB. Aoki would also set a Royals record for most hits in a three-game series with 11 against the White Sox, surpassing Willie Wilson and George Brett’s record of 10 hits. He would also be known for getting hit in the private parts while attempting to make a catch against the Blue Jays. Aoki would make an impact with the Royals in the postseason as he would score the Royals’ first run in the Wild Card game against the A’s and would also hit a sacrifice fly that would tie the game in the ninth inning. He would be the starting right fielder throughout the playoffs, but he only hit .195. He would become a free agent after the season ended and signed with the Giants.
Aoki would continue to play in MLB until 2017, when he decided to return to Japan to sign a three-year deal with the Swallows. He would record his 4,000th career at-bat and qualified to become NPB’s lifetime batting champion with a career batting average of .328. He would retire in 2024 and is now the general manager for the Swallows.
While his time with the Royals was just one year, he certainly made his impact felt during that one season. Who knows how the Royals would’ve finished if it weren’t for his services? We’ll never know, but one thing is for certain: Aoki is one of the best contact hitters Japanese baseball has ever seen. While he may not have had that same impact in Major League Baseball, he was still able to carve out a stellar career. It’s unfortunate that his time in Royals blue was short-lived, but he’ll certainly be remembered for decades to come.