Former Seattle Mariners Outfielder to End Baseball Retirement After Season

Former Seattle Mariners player Nori Aoki is set to retire from professional baseball at the end of this season. He has been playing in his native Japan.

According to the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper:

Tokyo Yakult Swallows player Norichika Aoki, who has 2,723 points in Japan and the major leagues, which puts him fifth on the all-time list among Japanese players, will retire after the current season, the Central League team announced on Friday.

Aoki, 42, spent 21 years playing professional baseball in the United States and Japan. The site reports that he was named Japan’s Central League Rookie of the Year and also won three batting titles.

In the United States, he spent six years in the big leagues with the Milwaukee Brewers, Kansas City Royals, Mariners, New York Mets, Houston Astros and Toronto Blue Jays. He had his greatest success with Milwaukee, hitting 150 hits in 2012 and 171 in 2013. He also helped the Royals reach the World Series in 2014, losing narrowly in Game 7 to the San Francisco Giants.

Aoki was one of the first signings of the Jerry Dipoto era in Seattle, playing the 2016 season with the M’s. It was Dipoto and Scott Servais’ first year at the helm of the organization. They brought Aoki in for his ability to run and make contact, as they wanted to focus on a more athletic type of team to surround sluggers Kyle Seager, Nelson Cruz and Robinson Cano.

In Seattle, he hit for a .283 average and had a .349 season. He had four home runs and 28 RBIs.

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