40 for 40 Presents: Nori Aoki

Who Am I?

Norichika Aoki

Corner outfield

Age: 35

Height: 5′ 9″

Weight: 180

Bats left, throws right

How Did I Get Here?

It’s been a long and winding road for Aoki. In 2012, he came to Milwaukee from the Yakult Swallows. (Try that Yakult to Milwaukee transition some time. A bit of culture shock.) After the 2013 season, he was traded by the Brewers to Kansas City for Will Smith, which shows you just how far Smith’s stock fell after releasing “After Earth”. After the 2014 season, he was non-tendered by Kansas City and signed as a free agent with San Francisco. After the 2015 season, he was non-tendered by the Giants and signed as a free agent with Seattle. (Seeing a pattern here?)

Finally, he was waived by Seattle after the 2016 to create room on their 40-man roster, and was claimed by the Astros.

Contract status:

Aoki is under contract for 2017 for $5.5M and is still eligible for arbitration in 2018.

Why Am I Here?

Whether by design or simply by result of using the players available to them, the Astros for the past few seasons had a lineup that was very right-handed, very powerful, and VERY prone to strikeouts. Aoki comes in to counterbalance all of these issues. He will hit for next to no power – but he will provide a left handed bat that makes a lot of contact and strikes out infrequently. Aoki looks like a platoon player coming into the season.

What Are My Strengths?

Aoki provides a dependable contact bat with a high level of consistency. His OBP by season for his career:

• .355
• .356
• .349
• .353
• .349

That’s a fairly minuscule standard deviation for a guy 5 years into his MLB career. He also walks as much as he strikes out, which is a quality that sticks out like a sore healthy thumb in this lineup.

What Are My Weaknesses?

I’ll allow the wordsmiths at Baseball Prospectus to properly describe Aoki’s defense:

If one were scoring the soundtrack of The Nori Aoki Show, it would be equal parts “Yakety Sax” and the theme from Curb Your Enthusiasm, with a soupçon of the Inception claxon for the darker moments when, as if propelled by the ballpark flipping on its side, he throws his body out of the path of an incoming fastball.

Also, you’d hope that a high-OBP guy would be a better baserunner, but he’s average at best and has shown alarmingly bad judgement in stolen base attempts.

Loves to hit: Much as described with Tyler White yesterday, Aoki uses his discerning eye to get himself to a good fastball. Last year, he hit .348 with a .529 SLG on fastballs, including 3 of his 4 homers.

Hates to hit:  Aoki seems to struggle identifying the changeup – last year he only went 13 for 57 on the change, with only one extra base hit.

What is my future with the Astros?

With one more season of arbitration eligibility, and as he is getting long in the tooth, Aoki’s future would not appear to extend beyond 2018 in Houston. For 2017, he’ll have every opportunity to hold down the job, but the kids like Fisher and the Tucker brothers are knocking on the door to take that corner OF spot.

What is my projected 2017 performance?

Who else would I remind you of?

On those 2004-05 teams, the Astros had a dependable veteran lefty with good contact and OBP skills and absolutely no power. I really liked what Orlando Palmeiro brought to the table, and I’m hoping Aoki can do the same.