Tetsuto Yamada

Tetsuto Yamada (山田 哲人) is a Japanese professional baseball infielder for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).

On October 6, in a game against the Yokohama DeNA BayStars, Yamada went 4-for-5 with a go-ahead grand slam in the 8th inning, which broke the single-season hits record for a Japanese right-handed batter set by Fumio Fujimura in 1950.

He ended the regular season with a high batting average of .324 and hitting 29 home runs.

In the first round of the 2010 Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) draft, Yamada was named by the Tokyo Yakult Swallows and the Orix Buffaloes.

Yakult won the rights to his negotiation, and he signed with them for a 7.2 million yen contract on November 25, 2010.

Yamada did not play in any regular season games with Yakult in 2011, but played in every game with the Eastern League farm team; however, due to injuries on the main roster, he started the second game of the final Climax Series stage against the Chunichi Dragons at shortstop, going 0-for-4.

He was the first ever rookie out of high school to start in the Climax Series.

In the fourth game of the series, he recorded his first NPB hit with a 2-out double down the right-field line in the 8th inning, but also committed a costly throwing error in the bottom of the first inning that lead to 4 runs in a 5-1 loss for Yakult.

Yamada made his NPB debut in 2012 with Yakult, and has played with them for his whole career.

He has won the Central League MVP award, has received the Best Nine Award six times, has been selected to six NPB All-Star Series appearances, and has a Japan Series championship.

He has led the Central League in stolen bases three times and home runs once, hitting 30 home runs and stealing 30 bases in a single season on four occasions.

His first regular season appearance came on April 5, 2012, in a pinch-hit at bat, during which he also recorded his first hit.

On August 10, 2012, he recorded his first home run in a game against the Yomiuri Giants.

For Yakult's farm team in 2012, he had a batting average of almost .300.

The following season, due to Yamada's defensive difficulties at shortstop and an offensive slump for Yakult 2nd baseman Hiroyasu Tanaka, Yamada was mostly a fixture at second base after being promoted to the main team in May.

On October 6, he hit his first professional grand slam homer off Kenta Maeda of the Hiroshima Toyo Carp.

Although he had not yet shown much power as he did not hit any homers until the end of the season, he demonstrated a good eye at the plate, recording a .354 on-base percentage, and also stole nine bases.

By his third year out of high school, he had achieved a level of consistency on the main Yakult team.

In 2014 he broke the single season record for most hits by a Japanese right-hander in the NPB, and in 2015 became the first player in NPB history to lead his league in home runs and stolen bases in the same season.

He has been compared to Mike Trout for his combination of power and speed.

Yamada has also played for the Japanese national team Samurai Japan.

In 2014 and 2018, he won the MLB Japan All-Star Series with them.

In 2014, Yamada's hitting improved significantly under the one-on-one guidance of hitting coach Shigeru Sugimura.

Throughout the 2014 season, Yamada continued demonstrating excellent plate discipline, and his ability to hit for home runs was greatly improved from previous seasons.

He became the first player in NPB history to hit a first-inning lead-off homer in six consecutive months (from April to September).

After being selected to his first All-Star Series by his manager's recommendation, he won the Fighting Spirit Award with two hits in the second game, including a home run.

In August, he recorded a league-leading 41 hits and won his first MVP of the month award.

He has played for Japan in the WBSC Premier12 tournaments of 2015 and 2019, and was on the Japanese team during the 2017 World Baseball Classic.

In 2021, he was selected to the host nation's team for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where he won both the gold medal and the MVP award.

Yamada was born in Toyooka, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan.

His father, Tomonori, was a police officer who had competed in Shorinji Kempo in high school.

As a child, Yamada did karate and gymnastics, and played soccer when he was in first grade.

He started playing baseball as an outfielder in Takarazuka Little League when he was in second grade.

After starting middle school, Yamada played for Hyōgo Itami, a team in the Japanese youth baseball organization Young League.

He and his family moved to Toyonaka, Osaka when he started attending Riseisha Senior High School.

In summer of his freshman year he started on the bench, and started playing second base regularly in the summer of his sophomore year.

That fall, he started playing shortstop, showing great defensive ability and leading his team with a .435 batting average in the spring of his junior year; that term his team won the Osaka tournament and finished second in the Kinki regional tournament.

In the Summer Koshien of his junior year, he contributed to Riseisha's first win by stealing home in the second round against Tenri High School.

In a game against Seiko Gakuin, Yamada hit a home run off Hiroaki Saiuchi, but his team would end up losing.

Kouta Inoue, who would later join the Hanshin Tigers, said that home run made him want to attend Riseisha.