No player has ever been the Home Run leader in both NPB and MLB.

On October 14, Northeast Rakuten announced the signing of Luke Voit to a player contract for 2026. Fans are very excited to retain the cannonballer, who has won the A-League's Home Run King of the A-League with 22 Home Run in 2020, a season that was shortened to 60 games in all.

In the long history of baseball, no player has ever been Home Run crowned King in both NPB and MLB, and Voit, who hit 13 Home Run in just 67 games in 2025, is expected to be the first player in history to accomplish the feat. In this article, we would like to introduce the characteristics of Voit as a hitter player based on his record in Japan and the U.S., and also to look forward to more success from the cannonballer in his second year in Japan.

His outstanding batting performance in the two seasons of 2018 and 2020 stands out.

The various metrics Voit recorded in MLB are as follows:

His MLB career OPS of .807 shows his overall high productivity. He also had several years in which he produced excellent numbers despite having fewer at-At Bat, such as an OPS of 1.069 in 2018 and an OPS of .948 in 2020, when he won Home Run title, proving his ability as hitter even on the world's highest stage.

Furthermore, his ISO, which is often expressed as the "true slugging percentage" by removing the influence of single hit from his slugging percentage, also recorded an excellent .215 in his MLB career. His ISO also recorded very high values of .350 in 2018 and .333 in 2020, once again demonstrating his outstanding batting performance over the past two years.

His MLB career AB/HR, which indicates At Bat required to hit one home run, is also excellent at 17.68. Furthermore, in 2020, when he won Home Run title, his AB/HR was 9.68, proliferating at an astonishing pace of less than 10 at At Bat per home run run. In 2018, he hit Home Run at an even faster rate, 9.53, demonstrating the outstanding power of Home Run king.

Given the characteristics of BABIP, Voit, a right-handed hitter batter who is not particularly fast, should be at a disadvantage...

His career MLB batting average was .253, his career on-base percentage was .339, and his numbers other than slugging were also at a certain level, and his "IsoD" (the difference between batting average and on-base percentage) was also an excellent .086. On the other hand, it is concerning that his career MLB batting average/K (BB/K), which is one of the indicators of batting eye and is calculated by dividing Walk by struck out, is only .349, which is by no means high.

Next, let's look at BABIP, which indicates the percentage of balls in play that become hit, excluding Home Run. BABIP is considered an indicator that is heavily influenced by luck, and the general benchmark is .300.

Due to its characteristics, BABIP is an indicator that tends to be recorded relatively high by speedy players and left-handed hitter who tend to get a lot of infield hit. However, Voit is right-handed hitter and is not a speedy hitter, having only stolen base three bases in his MLB career, but his MLB career BABIP is .316, a number that is well above the standard value.

One of the characteristics of players who tend to have a high BABIP is that the speed and quality of the batted ball are so high that it is difficult for fielder to react. In other words, it is natural to think that Voit is increasing the probability of a hit by batting the ball with force, rather than by his own leg strength.

It's also interesting to note that Voit's BABIP in 2020, the year he won Home Run title, was .268, well below his career average. Given that Home Run runs aren't included in the BABIP calculation, it's fair to say that Voit's impressive record shows he was able to achieve such good results even when he wasn't blessed with good luck.

Even after moving to NPB, he has shown his value as hitter just as he did in MLB.

Next, let's take a look at the various indicators that Voit has recorded in NPB.

In 2025, he not only hit 13 Home Run in just 67 games, but also recorded a high batting average of .300. His OPS was also excellent at .882, and in a pitching-heavy, low-hitting environment where only one player reached the required number of at-bats and recorded a batting average of over .300, he was considered to have been extremely productive.

In addition to maintaining a respectable ISO of .198, his AB/HR was 18.69, second-best in the league among players with at least 200 plate appearances. Considering that his career average AB/HR was 17.68, it's clear that he was hitting Home Run at a pace comparable to that during his time at the forefront of MLB.

Looking at indicators related to his batting eye, his IsoD in 2025 was .084, almost the same level as his career MLB figure of .086. His BB/K in 2025 was .458, exceeding the MLB average of .349, and it is encouraging to see his batting eye improving since coming to Japan.

Additionally, it's interesting to note that Voit's 2025 BABIP is set to be extremely high at .351. While BABIP is an indicator that is heavily influenced by luck, Voit's record of a high BABIP, even in the MLB where there are many fielder with excellent defense skills, is a strength. It will be interesting to see how Voit's BABIP and, by extension, his batting performance develop next season.

Can he follow in the footsteps of his great predecessors and lead the team to achieve a historic feat?

Before Voit, there were players who won Home Run title in the MLB before moving to NPB, and one of them, Andrew Jones, will be familiar to Tohoku Rakuten fans. Although Jones did not win a title in NPB, he hit 50 Home Run in his two years with the team and, as the cleanup hitter, contributed greatly to the team's 2013 league championship and Japan Series championship.

Will Voit be able to lead The Eagles as their main batter, just like his great predecessor, and achieve the feat of becoming Home Run king in both Japan and the U.S., something Jones was unable to do? After showing off his batting prowess in 2025, and once he's adapted to the Japanese baseball world, I can't wait to see what he'll do in 2026.

Written by Ryota Mochizuki