Ryota Arai

Ryota Arai (新井 良太)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 2", Weight 196 lb.

• School Komazawa University
• High School Koryo High School

• Born August 16, 1983 in Hiroshima, Hiroshima Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Ryota Arai played in Nippon Pro Baseball for 12 years. His brother Takahiro Arai also played in NPB.

Arai was drafted by the Chunichi Dragons in the 4th round of the 2005 NPB draft, and he went 6-for-23 in his first season. He was 7-for-25 in 2007, and he got 3 hits in 18 at-bats in 2008. Arai also played 57 games with a .332/.418/.566 batting line in the minors, and he won the batting title of the Western League. He then crushed 9 homers with a .299/.426/.496 batting line in the minors in 2009, and he led the league in walks and on-base percentage. Arai only played 8 games for the big club in '09 season, and he hit .153/.167/.203 in 45 games in 2010.

The Dragons then traded him to the Hanshin Tigers for Keisuke Mizuta, and he became the teammate of his brother Takahiro. Arai got a walk-off hit against the Yomiuri Giants on April 22, 2011, and they became the first pair of brothers to get a walk-off hit in the same season for the same team. However, he struggled again for the top team, and his batting line was .192/.222/.192 in 43 games. Arai broke out in 2012, and he crushed 11 homers with a .280/.365/.438 batting line. The Arai brothers became the first pair in the Central League to hit a homer in the same game on July 29 against the Yokohama BayStars, and they were the third pair of brothers to accomplish it in NPB history (following Masakazu Kato and Haruo Kato in 1950 and Leron Lee and Leon Lee in 1981).

Arai crushed a career-high 14 homers with a .238/.315/.401 batting line in 2013, and he hit .295/.364/.468 in 78 games in 2014. He slumped to .193/.247/.327 in 2015, and he struggled again as his batting line was .154/.230/.308 in 2016. Arai was 1-for-16 in 2017, and he announced his retirement. He later became the batting coach of the minor league team of the Tigers from 2017 to 2019, and he coached their top team from 2020 to 2022. Arai moved to his hometown Hiroshima Carp as minor league batting coach in 2023.

Overall, Arai hit .238/.309/.381 with 298 hits and 40 homers in 12 seasons in NPB.

Sources

• Wiki Japan