Toronto Blue Jays Pitcher Yusei Kikuchi Invites Teammates to Drink Expensive Japanese Whisky With Him After Wins

Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Yusei Kikuchi (right) drinks water before a baseball game against the Houston Astros on April 2 in Houston. (AP Photo/Eric Christian Smith)

On Monday, MLB.com published a story about the whisky drinking celebrations of Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Yusei Kikuchi.

According to the article, Kikuchi celebrates each win that he starts in with a pour of whisky produced by the vaunted Japanese distillery, Yamazaki.

“Those bottles are pretty expensive, but [Daniel Vogelbach] joined in the other day, and whoever wants to join in, feel free,” Kikuchi said through an interpreter, according to MLB.com. “The bottle is a little expensive, but I don’t mind buying, and hopefully, a few more wins come our way so I can keep buying.”

Yamazaki is a very popular and esteemed brand that’s routinely near or at the top of the list when it comes to the world’s most respected whisky brands.

There’s no word on which Yamazaki bottling is Kikuchi’s go-to, but some of the expressions from the storied distillery are wildly expensive and rare. In 2022, a bottle of Yamazaki 55 Year Old — the world’s oldest Japanese whisky — sold for €488,000 ($519,483).

We’re pretty sure Kikuchi isn’t sipping a half-a-million-dollar bottle after every win, but there’s really no such thing as a “cheap” bottle of Yamazaki. At the lowest end of the spectrum are Yamazaki 12 Year Old, which typically sells for around $200 a bottle, and Yamazaki Distiller’s Reserve, which usually commands between $120 and $175.

Whichever Yamazaki Kikuchi shared with Vogelbach, his teammate enjoyed it.

“I hadn’t had that before and it was really, really good,” Vogelbach said, according to MLB.com. “It’s always cool when someone has something like that, especially coming from Japan when they’re excited to show you and let you try. It was cool.”

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