Nori Aoki

[Michael Trzinski]

Norichika Aoki was born in Hyuga, Japan in 1982. After graduating from Miyazaki Prefectural Hyuga High School, he attended Waseda University. In his four-year college career, he hit .332 but did not hit a single home run. After college, Aoki was selected in the fourth round of the 2003 amateur draft by the Yakult Swallows of the Nippon Professional Baseball League.

Aoki played eight years for Yakult and batted .329 and hit 84 home runs. After the 2011-12 season, the Swallows posted Aoki to MLB, where the Brewers won the posting and signed Aoki to a two-year contract with an option for a third year.

The 5-foot 9, 180-pound left-handed hitter played all three outfield positions, but played mostly right field. His rookie season was solid with a slash line of .288/.355/.433 across 520 at-bats. He also banged 10 home runs and stole 30 bases, and his 37 two-base hits were a season record for a Brewer rookie. Aoki finished an impressive fifth in the NL ROY voting.

His second and final season for Milwaukee in 2013 saw him slash .286/.356/.370 across 597 at-bats. Aoki’s numbers dropped slightly across the board, but it was still a nice season. In early December Aoki was traded to the Kansas City Royals.

Over the next four seasons, Aoki played for Kansas City, Seattle, San Francisco, Houston, and Toronto. His MLB career numbers showed a slash line of .285/.350/.387 with 774 hits and 98 stolen bases.

Aoki was released after the 2017 campaign and returned to Japan, where he played with Yakult through the 2024 season. Aoki announced his retirement in September. During his 21-year major league career (MLB and NPB) Aoki collected over 2,700 hits.

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