KANAGAWA (TR) – Following the suspension of Yokohama DeNA BayStars pitcher Kakeru Ayabe over his relationship with a female minor, it has been learned that the player was involved with many other women, weekly tabloid Shukan Bunshun (July 25) reports.
According to the magazine, Ayabe’s wife, who married the pitcher in February of last year, became suspicious when he started coming home late.
Through various means — including the monitoring of his social-networking services and the planting of a recording device in his bedroom — his wife learned that he had 18 mistresses, many of whom he was philandering with while she was pregnant with their first child.
“He’s sure got a wide strike zone,” a sports reporter tells the site Asagei Biz in referring to Ayabe’s mistresses.
To wit, among them are an adult video actress, a woman in the entertainment business, an employee for the ball club, a housewife and the aforementioned minor, who is a high school girl, the magazine said.
A writer for Bunshun approached DeNA before the release of the article. The club then interviewed Ayabe and confirmed that the high school girl is underage, which resulted in his suspension.
“As a baseball club, we are taking the situation seriously and are suspending [Ayabe] for an indefinite period,” an announcement on the BayStars site said on July 16.
Ayabe, a 22-year-old native of Ibaraki Prefecture, has a record of 1-0 over two seasons with the club. Last year, the right-hander did not appear in a game after undergoing shoulder surgery.
Prior to his suspension, he had compiled an ERA of 6.00 in three games for the club this year.
Nikkan Sports reported that Ayabe’s mother, aged in her 40s, came from Ibaraki to Yokohama Stadium to attend his first game for the BayStars on October 14, 2017. After the game, which Ayabe won, he presented her with a game ball.
The emergence of the scandal, though, has very likely removed any lingering shine from that day — in more ways than one. “The housewife is roughly the same age as his mother,” the sports reporter adds to Asagei Biz.