Hiroaki Saiuchi

Hiroaki Saiuchi's career reads like a survival story more than a highlight reel, and honestly that makes it more interesting. A Hyogo kid drafted by his hometown Hanshin Tigers in 2011, he looked like a solid middle-relief piece with a nasty split-finger and a fastball that could touch 148 km/h — then shoulder trouble started eating away at him from 2017 onward. Getting released in 2019 could've been the end, but instead he went to an independent league in Kagawa and absolutely dominated: a 0.42 ERA across nine starts is the kind of number that makes you rub your eyes. Yakult came calling, and he got one more real NPB win in 2020 — seven clean innings, 1,829 days after his last one. That comeback was genuinely poetic. The 2021 retirement was quiet, but the journey from Tigers draft pick to independent league ace to Swallow one last time? Way more compelling than a guy who just coasted through a decade on a big roster.

Hiroaki Saiuchi is a Japanese professional baseball player born on July 19, 1993, in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. He stands 184 cm tall. Further details about his career history and personal life have not been made public.

Name (English)

Hiroaki Saiuchi

Name (Japanese)

歳内宏明

Reading

さいうち ひろあき

Born

July 19, 1993 (age 33)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Cancer / Rooster

Origin

Amagasaki, Hyogo, Japan

Height

184cm

Occupation

Baseball Player

Motto

Private

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%AD%B3%E5%86%85%E5%AE%8F%E6%98%8E

Tags

• Hyogo Prefecture
• Baseball Player

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.