is a Japanese professional baseball infielder for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). 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. 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 been nicknamed "Mr. Triple Three", as he is the only player in NPB history to accomplish the "triple three" (30 home runs, 30 stolen bases, and a batting average of .300 in a single season) three times. He is currently the last NPB player to accomplish the feat in a season.
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. 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.
Early life 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.
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.
Professional career Early career (2011-2013)
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.
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.
Breakout and MVP performance (2014-2015)
2014 season In 2014, Yamada's hitting improved significantly under the one-on-one guidance of hitting coach Shigeru Sugimura.4年目の覚醒。山田哲人が「ヤクルトの至宝」になるまで web Sportiva 2014年7月29日 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).週刊ベースボール2014年10月6日号97ページ 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. 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. His on-base plus slugging percentage of .941 was second in the league, and he led the league in weighted runs above average with 48.4, indicating how many runs he produced compared to the average player. Sugimura had initially expected Yamada to be a mid-range hitter who could hit the ball to all fields, but was surprised by his development into a power hitter with a high on-base percentage. During the off-season on October 9, Yamada was selected to represent Japan in the MLB Japan All-Star Series. In the training game, he played first base for the first time since joining professional baseball.
2015 season (MVP award) After Yamada's strong offensive performance the previous year, Sugimura said before the 2015 season that he thought Yamada had the potential to accomplish a "triple three"—a .300 batting average, 30 home runs, and 30 stolen bases in a single season; this was despite his relatively low stolen base total of 15 in 2014. In the middle of the season, Yakult manager Mitsuru Manaka decided to move Yamada to third in the lineup, leading to improvements in his hitting. Yamada had an excellent summer, winning the MVP of the month award in three consecutive months from July to September. Between an at-bat on August 21 and three at-bats on August 22 against Chunichi, he hit four home runs in a row, tying an NPB record. With this series of homers, he also cleared the 30 home run mark for the first time in his career. On September 6, in a game against Hiroshima, he stole his 30th stolen base, which secured a triple three in his 2015 season, becoming the first NPB player to accomplish the feat since Matsui Akira in 2002 and the ninth in NPB history, as well as the youngest ever in the Central League.
He finished the 2015 season with a .329 batting average, 38 home runs, 100 runs batted in, and 34 stolen bases, which were all career highs. He finished first in the league in home runs, stolen bases, and on-base percentage, finishing second in batting average, hits, and runs batted in. It was the first time in NPB history that a player won both the home run and stolen base titles in the same season.山田哲人トリプルスリー！史上初の本塁打&盗塁王も - 日刊スポーツ（2015年10月4日22時10分配信、2015年10月27日閲覧）ヤクルト・山田、トリプルスリー達成 盗塁王獲得は史上初 - 野球 - SANSPO.COM（サンスポ）（2015年10月4日配信、2015年10月27日閲覧） He was named the Central League MVP. His season performance greatly contributed to Yakult advancing to the 2015 Japan Series against the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. In Game 3, Yamada hit three consecutive home runs in one game for the first time in the Series' history. Yakult would lose the series 1–4, but Yamada won the Fighting Spirit Award, given to the most valuable player on the losing team. In assessing his MVP season in October 2015, the Japan Times wrote, "Yamada had a 2015 the likes of which is seldom seen in Japanese baseball."
On December 8, during the off-season, Yakult renewed Yamada's contract, signing him for an annual salary of 220 million yen. The team also announced that his uniform number would be changed from 23, which he had been wearing in previous seasons, to 1 starting in the 2016 season. The jersey number 1 has been historically worn by prominent Yakult players; in a special ceremony, Yamada was given his New Jersey by Nori Aoki. Yamada expressed that although he felt some added pressure in inheriting a jersey number with such significance, he would do his best to live up to expectations.
Continuing success and multiple triple threes (2016-2019)
In 2016, he was selected to represent Japan in the Samurai Japan training match against Chinese Taipei on February 15, before the season started.3月開催の侍ジャパン強化試合、出場26選手発表！ 野球日本代表 侍ジャパンオフィシャルサイト (2016年2月15日) 2016年2月17日閲覧 In June of the regular season, he played in 23 games and ranked first in the league in batting average, home runs, and runs batted in with a .346 batting average, 28 hits, 10 home runs, and 28 runs batted in, earning him his fifth monthly MVP award, tying Alex Ramírez for a Yakult record. However, on July 30, in a game against the Giants at Tokyo Dome, he was hit in the back by a pitch.ヤク山田 背中にズドン...3四死球「人生初の息苦しさを感じた」 スポニチ Sponichi Annex、2016年7月31日 He continued to appear in games, but on August 9 he complained of pain and was replaced midway through the game. He was diagnosed with a contusion of the left eighth rib, and was struck from the roster on August 10.ヤクルト山田が登録抹消 肋骨骨挫傷で全治期間未定 日刊スポーツ、2016年8月10日 After a two-week absence, he returned to the lineup and showed signs of recovery, hitting three homers in one game against the Hanshin Tigers on September 10, but was hit again in the back by a pitch in his first at-bat against Hanshin the next day. Although he appeared to be in great pain for several minutes, he stayed in the game.ヤクルト・山田、また背部に死球受ける 苦悶の表情で打席に倒れこむ サンスポ、2016年9月11日 Despite his injury, he ended the season hitting .304 with 38 home runs and 30 stolen bases, achieving a second consecutive triple three. It was the first time in NPB history that a player had achieved a triple three in consecutive years.ヤクルト山田、2年連続「トリプル3」記録 日本経済新聞、2016年10月2日 He also won the stolen base title for a second year in a row and led the league in walks.
In 2017, he was the only player on the team to play a full inning in every game, despite struggling with lower body conditions.ベースボール・マガジン社『週刊ベースボール』2018年10月1日号 p.27. However, he continued to underperform throughout the year, and finished the season with a .247 batting average, 24 home runs, and 14 stolen bases. Yakult had a very poor season overall, losing a franchise record 96 games.