Hotaka Yamakawa

Hotaka Yamakawa (山川 穂高) (Okawari-II)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 9", Weight 231 lb.

• School Fuji University
• High School Chubu Commercial High School

• Born November 23, 1991 in Naha, Okinawa Japan

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Biographical Information

Hotaka Yamakawa has been a MVP in Japan.

Yamakawa played for the Japanese national team in the 2012 Asian Championship, the only collegiate position player on the squad; Japan won the Gold Medal, with a grand slam off Young-pyo Ko in the 6-2 Gold Medal Game win. He also helped Japan win the 2013 East Asian Games. He hit .304 for his collegiate career. He was picked by the Seibu Lions in the second round of the 2013 NPB draft, one round after Tomoya Mori in what would be a good draft for Seibu. Due to his hefty size and power, he was nicknamed Okawari-II after another beefy Lions slugger, Takeya Nakamura.

He starred in the minors for Seibu, but saw limited action with the top team over the next couple years. In 2014, he made his debut June 21, facing Guillermo Moscoso and the Yokohama BayStars. He went 0 for 3 with a walk. His first hit did not come until September 15 when he hit a solo homer off Wataru Karashima. The team had no set third baseman that year; Ryota Wakiya led with 56 games; Yamakawa hit only .100/.206/.300 in 34 plate appearances. In the minors, he hit .321/.411/.606 with 21 homers and 62 RBI in 77 games to lead in home runs and slugging in the Eastern League. The Naha native produced at a .283/.410/.478 clip on the farm in '15. He got a hit in his lone at-bat with the top team in 2015. He began 2016 with Seibu but lost playing time to two other heavyweight power hitters, 1B Ernesto Mejia and DH Nakamura. He did hit .259/.335/.590 with 14 HR in 49 games with the top club and .333/.399/.667 with 22 HR and 64 RBI in 64 minor league games. He again led the EL in dingers.

His dominant play down on the farm was finally rewarded with regular action in 2017 (.298/.420/.661, 23 HR, 61 RBI in 78 G), though he still was battling Mejia for time at first. Had he qualified, he would have led the Pacific League in slugging (.072 ahead of Yuki Yanagita) and he was only 6 OBP points behind leader Yanagita. Despite his part-time role, he was one homer shy of making the top 10; Nobuhiro Matsuda had 24. He even got a third-place vote for the 2017 PL MVP.

Yamakawa became Seibu's starting first baseman for 2018, Mejia moving to DH. He made his first All-Star team. In 2018 NPB All-Star Game 1, he took over for Sho Nakata at 1B early in a 7-6 win over the Central League. He flew out against Randy Messenger in the 3rd, grounded out versus Onelki Garcia in the 5th, singled off Garcia in the 6th to plate Shuta Tonosaki and struck out against Katsuki Azuma in the 8th. The next day, he started at first and hit cleanup in a 5-1 win. He drew a first-inning walk from Tomoyuki Sugano, singled in the 4th off Yuta Iwasada and grounded out in the 6th against Koji Uehara before being replaced by Toshiaki Imae. After the season, he was on the Samurai Japan team that beat the MLB All-Stars. For the year, he hit .281/.396/.590 in the regular season with 115 runs, 47 homers, 88 walks and 124 RBI. He led the PL in runs (8 ahead of Shogo Akiyama) and home runs (11 more than #2 Yanagita), was 2nd in RBI (3 behind Hideto Asamura), 2nd in walks (8 behind Haruki Nishikawa), 5th in OBP (between Masataka Yoshida and Nishikawa), 2nd in slugging (.071 behind Yanagita), 2nd in OPS (107 behind Yanagita) and 2nd in total bases (319, 3 behind Akiyama). He was picked to the Best Nine at first base and won the 2018 PL MVP, 991 vote points to 750 by infield mate Asamura; he had 148 first-place votes to Asamura's 81. He was the first Seibu player to win since fellow first baseman Alex Cabrera 16 years prior.

The Okinawa native extended his domination in 2019, and he was selected into the 2019 NPB All-Star Game. He was 1-for-4 with a homer against Shun Yamaguchi in Game 1, then he went 0-for-2 in Game 2. Yamakawa crushed his 100th homer against Johnny Barbato on May 12, and he became the fastest player in NPB history to reach this benchmark, breaking Koji Akiyama's record. He ended up hitting .256/.372/.540 with 43 homers, and he won his second Best Nine. He led the league in homers, and he was 2nd in RBI (3 behind Nakamura), 4th in runs (tied with Asamura) and 3rd in slugging (between Asamura and Jabari Blash).

Yamakawa slumped to .205/.357/.450 with 24 homers in 2020, and he was 5th in homers (tied with Stefen Romero) and 4th in RBI (tied with Ryoya Kurihara). He was voted into the 2021 NPB All-Star Game, and he went 1-for-5 with a 2-run double against Yuki Takahashi in Game 1. He ended up hitting .232/.321/.469 with 24 homers in 2021, and he was 5th in homers (between Leonys Martin and Yoshida). He bounced back in 2022, and he crushed 41 homers with a .266/.375/.578 batting line. Yamakawa won his third Best Nine, and he led the league in homers, slugging, total bases and RBI. He also attended the 2022 NPB All-Star Game, and he was 2-for-4 with a homer against Koyo Aoyagi in Game 1.

In the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Yamakawa was mainly used as pinch-hitter as Japan already had superstar Shohei Ohtani. He was 1-for-5 with 2 RBI in 3 games. However, Yamakawa involved into a rape scandal on May 11, 2023, and he was banned for a season. Yamakawa announced that he would become a free agent after that season, and the Softbank Hawks signed him with a 4-year, 2-billion yen contract. The Lions selected Hiroshi Kaino as compensation. On April 13, Yamakawa crushed 2 grand slams against the Seibu Lions, and he was the third player in NPB history to accomplish that feat (following Shigeya Iijima and Tomohiro Nioka). Yamakawa crushed 34 homers with a .247/.318/.484 batting line in 2024, and he led the league in homers, RBI, strikeouts and total bases. He won his 4th Best Nine, and he took his first NPB Gold Glove award. Yamakawa hit .500 with three homers in the 2024 PLCS and won the MVP award, but he had a 3-for-22 record in the 2024 Nippon Series and the Hawks lost to the Yokohama BayStars in 6 games.

The veteran slugger was 1 for 2 with a RBI in the 2025 NPB All-Star Game 2. For the 2025 season, his numbers were down at .226/.300/.402 with 23 homers and 62 RBI. He was 7th in slugging (between Taisei Makihara and Seiya Watanabe), second in homers (9 behind Franmil Reyes) and 4th in RBI (between Tyler Nevin and Chusei Mannami). He was huge in the 2025 Japan Series. After a Game 1 loss, he hit a two-run double and a 3-run homer (off the Hanshin Tigers' Yuta Iwasada) in Game 2's rout, took Hiroto Saiki deep to tie Game 3 en route to a 2-1 win, then homered off Haruto Takahashi in Game 4, a 3-2 win. He became the 6th NPB player to homer in three straight Series Games. He followed Futoshi Nakanishi, Randy Bass, Kenji Johjima, Tomoaki Kanemoto and Brad Eldred. He won the Japan Series MVP.