​Kensuke Kondo boasts a genius batting sense. Although he was plagued by a back injury last season, he made his presence felt despite the limited playing time he had, and contributed to Fukuoka Softbank 's victory in the Japan Series. He is also expected to play a leading role in the Samurai Japan batting line-up at the 2026 WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC (hereafter referred to as WBC) to be held in March. In this article, we will look back at Kondo's data from the 2023 tournament onwards, and predict his performance in this tournament.

Changes in batting style since the last tournament

Until 2022, when he was with Hokkaido Nippon-Ham, Kondo was often described as a "skilled hitter" known for his bat control. However, in the 2023 season, after the WBC and in a new home, he switched to a batting style that aimed for long hits. He became Home Run king for the first time with Home Run. What is particularly noteworthy here is that despite this major change in style, he has not lost the consistency of his hitting. Although his contact rate in 2023 was 80.9%, down from the previous year, it improved again in 2024 and 2025. Today, Kondo is a unique batter who combines skill and power in his hitting.

Another strength of Kondo is his ability to get on base thanks to his discerning eye for pitches. In the 2023 WBC, he hitter second and recorded an on-base percentage of .500, playing a crucial role in setting up third batter Shohei Ohtani. Even in seasons since 2023, when he began to produce a lot of extra-base hits, his ball-zone swing rate was the best among players who reached the required number of plate appearances, and he won the highest on-base percentage title for two consecutive years. Even last season, when he did not reach the required number of plate appearances, he still demonstrated his high level of skill.

Dealing with fastballs is key in international competitions

Here, we would like to take a look at pitcher from other countries that Samurai Japan's batting line-up will face. The strong countries competing for the championship have many major leaguers, so it will be important to deal with the hard fastballs they throw. The fastballs of the teams that made it to the top eight in the 2023 tournament had an average speed of 149.2 km/h, more than 2 km/h faster than last season's NPB. Powerful fastballs are more likely to induce strikeouts in the higher zones, and in fact, the percentage of pitch thrown high and the rate of swings resulting in strikeouts are higher than in NPB.

The above data does not include the Dominican Republic, which was eliminated in the first round, but their average fastball speed was 154.4km/h, the highest among all 20 teams. Of course, they are an opponent that Japan should be wary of in this tournament as well.

He possesses top-level adaptability even in a lineup full of hitter team.

Even among the Samurai Japan batting lineup, which is made up of key players from each team, Kondo has an outstanding batting average of .366 against fastballs. Even when limited to pitches with speeds of 150km/h or faster, his batting average was .286, third best among all members of this tournament. Looking at his performance against higher zone pitches, he struggled with a batting average of .259 in his first year after the transfer in 2011, but improved to .338 the following year. Last season, he batted .400 and hit four Home Run in 35 At Bat, further honing his power hitting ability.

As we've seen so far, Kondo is becoming more impressive every year, but he has also begun improving his batting form during spring training, saying, "I want to increase the probability of catching high, fast balls," and his curiosity knows no bounds. It will be interesting to see what kind of performance Japan's best batting master will show us on the big stage for the first time in three years.

*All figures in the text and tables are as of the end of the 2025 season.

Text and Data Stadium