Keston Wee Hing Natsuo Hiura (born August 2, 1996) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professiona ...

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

and second baseman for the

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division. The Brewers are named for t ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...

(MLB). Hiura was born in

Santa Clarita, California Santa Clarita (; Spanish for "Little St. Clare") is a city in northwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. With a 2020 census population of 228,673, it is the third-largest city by population in Los Angeles County, the 17 ...

and attended Valencia High School. He later played three seasons of

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

at the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and p ...

, earning conference accolades and spending time with the United States collegiate national team in the offseason. Hiura forewent his final year of college eligibility and signed with the Brewers after they selected him in the first round of the

2017 Major League Baseball draft The 2017 Major League Baseball (MLB) First-Year Player Draft began on June 12, 2017. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to MLB teams. The first 36 picks, including the first round and compensatory picks, were broadcast on MLB Network on J ...

. Hiura spent three seasons in the Brewers

farm system In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team, feeder club, or nursery club is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a higher ...

and was acclaimed as the organization's top prospect by his second minor league season. In 2019, he made his major league debut and posted a .303

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

in 84 games. In the following three seasons, Hiura's statistics regressed, including a

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

(NL)-leading 85 strikeouts in 2020 and a .168 batting average in 2021.

Career

Amateur career

Hiura attended Valencia High School in

Valencia, Santa Clarita, California Valencia is a neighborhood in Santa Clarita located within Los Angeles County, California. It is one of the four unincorporated communities (along with Saugus, Newhall, and Canyon Country) that merged to create the city of Santa Clarita ...

. Playing for the school's baseball team, Hiura batted .500 with 14

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s and 30

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the b ...

(RBIs) in his senior year as the Vikings won the

Foothill League The Foothill League is a high school athletic conference in the Santa Clarita Valley area of Los Angeles County, California that is affiliated with the CIF Southern Section. All current members are part of the William S. Hart Union High School Distr ...

. Undrafted out of high school, Hiura played

for the

Anteaters Anteater is a common name for the four extant mammal species of the suborder Vermilingua (meaning "worm tongue") commonly known for eating ants and termites. The individual species have other names in English and other languages. Together with ...

. As a freshman in 2015, he hit .330 with a .392

on-base percentage In baseball statistics, on-base percentage (OBP) measures how frequently a batter reaches base. An official Major League Baseball (MLB) statistic since 1984, it is sometimes referred to as on-base average (OBA), as it is rarely presented as a ...

(OBP), a .520

slugging percentage In baseball statistics, slugging percentage (SLG) is a measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats, through the following formula, where ''AB'' is the number of at bats for a given player, ...

(SLG), seven home runs, and 52 RBIs over 56 games. As a sophomore in 2016, he hit .358 with a .436 OBP, .559 SLG, seven home runs, and 41 RBIs over 53 games. After the season, Hiura played for the United States collegiate national team. In his junior year, Hiura batted .442 with a .567 OBP. He was named

Big West Conference The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The conference was originally formed on July 1, 1969, as the Pacifi ...

Player of the Year.

Professional career

The

selected Hiura in the first round, with the ninth overall selection, in the

. He signed and was assigned to the Arizona Brewers of the Rookie-level

Arizona League The Arizona Complex League (ACL) is a rookie-level Minor League Baseball league that operates in and around Phoenix, Arizona, since 1988. Prior to 2021, it was known as the Arizona League (AZL). Along with the Florida Complex League (FCL), it ...

, and after batting .435 with four home runs, 18 RBIs and a 1.339 OPS in 15 games, was promoted to the

Wisconsin Timber Rattlers The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers are a Minor League Baseball team of the Midwest League and the High-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. They are located in Grand Chute, Wisconsin, a town on the outskirts of Appleton in the Fox Cities, and are na ...

of the Class A

Midwest League The Midwest League is a Minor League Baseball league established in 1947 and based in the Midwestern United States. A Class A league for most of its history, the league was promoted to High-A as part of Major League Baseball's 2021 reorganiza ...

where he finished the season, posting a .333 batting average with 15 RBIs and seven walks in 27 games. MLB.com ranked Hiura as Milwaukee's top prospect going into the 2018 season. He began the 2018 season with the

Carolina Mudcats The Carolina Mudcats are a Minor League Baseball team of the Carolina League and the Single-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. They are located in Zebulon, North Carolina, a suburb of Raleigh, and play their home games at Five County Stadium. ...

of the

Class A-Advanced High-A (officially Class High-A, formerly known as Class A-Advanced, and sometimes abbreviated "A+" in writing) is the third-highest level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States and Canada, below Triple-A and Double-A, and abov ...

Carolina League The Carolina League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated along the Atlantic Coast of the United States since 1945. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 un ...

and was promoted to the

Biloxi Shuckers The Biloxi Shuckers are a Minor League Baseball team of the Southern League and the Double-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. They are located in Biloxi, Mississippi, and are named in reference to the city's oyster industry and seafood heri ...

of the

Class AA Double-A (officially Class AA) is the second-highest level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States since 1946, below only Triple-A. There are currently 30 teams classified at the Double-A level, one for each team in Major League ...

Southern League on June 1 after hitting .320 with seven home runs, 23 RBIs, and a .911 OPS in 50 games for Carolina. Hiura also won the 2018

Arizona Fall League The Arizona Fall League (AFL) is an off-season sports league owned and operated by Major League Baseball (MLB) which operates during the autumn in Arizona, United States, at six different baseball complexes. Arizona Fall League rosters are fille ...

MVP Hiura finished the year with Biloxi, batting .272 with six home runs, twenty RBIs, and 11 stolen bases in 73 games. Hiura began 2019 with the

San Antonio Missions The San Antonio Missions are a Minor League Baseball team of the Texas League and the Double-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. They are located in San Antonio, Texas, and are named for the Spanish missions around which the city was founded ...

. On May 14, his contract was selected and he was called up to the major leagues. He made his major league debut on May 14 versus the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

. On June 3, 2019, despite a strong showing in the majors, Hiura was sent back down to AAA to the

in order to make room for

Travis Shaw Travis Richard Shaw (born April 16, 1990) is an American professional baseball infielder who is a free agent. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Boston Red Sox, Milwaukee Brewers and Toronto Blue Jays—his nickname is Mayor of ...

. Hiura returned to the Brewers on June 28 along with infielder Tyler Saladino, as Shaw returned to AAA and utility player Hernán Pérez was designated for assignment. On July 28, Hiura homered in the bottom of the 10th inning against the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is locate ...

for his first career walk-off hit. In 2019, on defense he led all major league second basemen in errors, with 16. In the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Hiura batted .212/.297/.410 with 13 home runs and 32 RBIs in 59 games. He led the National League in strikeouts (85), as well as putouts (66) and errors (16) by a second baseman. On January 13, 2023, Hiura agreed to a one-year, $2.2 million contract with the Brewers, avoiding salary arbitration.

Personal life

Hiura was born to a Chinese mother and a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

father. He grew up a

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League West, West division. Established in 1883 i ...

fan.

References

External links

UC Irvine Anteaters bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hiura, Keston 1996 births Living people All-American college baseball players American baseball players of Chinese descent American baseball players of Japanese descent Arizona League Brewers players Baseball outfielders Baseball players from California Biloxi Shuckers players Carolina Mudcats players Major League Baseball second basemen Milwaukee Brewers players Nashville Sounds players People from Valencia, Santa Clarita, California Peoria Javelinas players San Antonio Missions players Sportspeople from Santa Clarita, California UC Irvine Anteaters baseball players Wisconsin Timber Rattlers players