Ryuhei Matsuyama

Ryuhei Matsuyama (松山 竜平)

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 5' 9", Weight 187 lb.

• School Kyushu Kokusai University
• High School Kanoya Chuo High School

• Born September 18, 1985 in Osaki, Kagoshima Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Ryuhei Matsuyama has played in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Matsuyama twice led the Kyushu Big6 Baseball League in average, once in homers and three times in RBI; he hit .412 overall in college and set a league record with 112 hits. The Hiroshima Carp took him in the 4th round of the 2007 NPB draft. He spent most of 2008 in the minor Western League, winning a RBI and hit crown. He made his debut with the big club as a pinch-hitter for Kan Otake and was retired by Jun Hagiwara. He struck out in his other bat that year. He spent all of 2009 and 2010 in the minors, playing the corner infield. He became a backup corner outfielder for Hiroshima in 2011, getting his first NPB hit off Kazuhisa Makita may 26 and his first homer June 9 against Hideaki Wakui. He hit .270/.299/.357 in 68 games that year.

The Kagoshima native batted .204/.253/.234 in 48 games in 2012. In 2013, he was Hiroshima's main right fielder and produced at a .282/.302/.430 clip with 10 homers in 123 games. Matsuyama suffered from a right knee injury in 2014, so he only played 80 games but posted a .318/.360/.455 batting line. Had he qualified, he would've tied Yohei Oshima for 4th in the Central League in average He returned in 2015 with a .277/.349/.446 batting line, then he crushed 10 homers with a .291/.342/.465 batting line in 2016. Matsuyama hit .200/.294/.400 in the 2016 Nippon Series with a homer against Shohei Ohtani, but the Nippon Ham Fighters beat the Carp in 6 games.

Matsuyama crushed a career-high 14 homers with a .326/.375/.534 batting line in 2017, and he won 4 points in the CL MVP voting (tied Takeru Imamura for 13th). Had he qualified, he would've led the league in batting; Toshiro Miyazaki won at .323. Matsuyama then blasted 12 homers with a .302/.368/.466 batting line in 2018, and he won one vote in the CL MVP voting. He hit .318/.348/.455 in the 2018 Nippon Series, but the Carp lost to the Softbank Hawks in 6 games. Matsuyama slumped to .259/.327/.374 in 2019, and he played 108 games with a .277/.306/.416 batting line in 2020.

When Kevin Cron joined the team and Shogo Sakakura was moved to first base in 2021, Matsuyama lost his spot so he only played 85 games, with a .263/.325/.354 batting line. He struggled in 2022 as his batting line fell to .217/.265/.303, then he hit .252/.301/.315 in 79 games in 2023. He was 13-for-73 in 2024, and he mainly stayed in the minors in 2025.

Sources

• Japan Baseball Daily by Gary Garland
• Japanese Wikipedia