Shogo Nakamura

Shogo Nakamura (中村 奨吾)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 174 lb.

• School Waseda University
• High School Tenri High School

• Born May 28, 1992 in Miki, Hyogo Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Shogo Nakamura has been a Best Nine pick in NPB.

Nakamura hit a leading .438 and two triples for the Japanese college team in the 2013 match with the US college team. He was 2 for 5 for Japan in the 2014 Haarlem Baseball Week. He was picked by the Chiba Lotte Marines in the first round of the 2014 NPB draft.

His first NPB at-bat came as a pinch-hitter for Daichi Suzuki, striking out against Naoki Miyanishi. His first hit came off Takahiro Matsuba and his first homer against Wade LeBlanc. He was the 6th NPB rookie (first since Tomochika Tsuboi) and first Marines rookie to get their first dinger while leading off a game. He played regularly at 3B while Toshiaki Imae was injured and backed up Luis Cruz at 2B, hitting .231/.279/.331 for 2015. He was 4th in voting for the 2015 Pacific League Rookie of the Year, behind college teammate Kohei Arihara, Akihiro Hakumura and Kona Takahashi.

In 2016, he took over the third base spot when Imae left as a free agent. He batted only .201/.283/.309, though. His sophomore struggles over, he hit .275/.336/.432 in 2017. On a poor offensive team, he was 4th in homers (9), second in steals (11) and third in OPS. Moving to second base the next year, he made his first Pacific League All-Star team. In 2018 NPB All-Star Game 1, he replaced Hideto Asamura at second, grounding out against Onelki Garcia his lone time up. In Game 2, he started at second and hit 5th. He was retired by Tomoyuki Sugano in the first then singled off Yuta Iwasada and drew a walk from Taichi Ishiyama before coming out. He had a fine season, fielding .993 and producing at a .284/.374/.393 clip with 30 doubles, 60 walks and 39 steals in 54 tries. He was among the PL leaders in average (10th, between Shuta Tonosaki and Hotaka Yamakawa), OBP (9th, between Seiya Inoue and Hiroaki Shimauchi), runs (82, 8th, between Seiji Uebayashi and Masataka Yoshida), doubles (5th), steals (2nd, 5 behind Haruki Nishikawa), caught stealing (1st, 2 more than Yudai Fujioka), times plunked (22, 1st, 5 more than Suzuki) assists at 2B (486, 1st) and fielding percentage at 2B (1st). He set a team record for times hit by pitch. He won a Gold Glove.

The Miki native was on Japan's team in a friendly series versus Mexico in early 2019. He showed more pop but less otherwise in 2019 at .232/.317/.375 with 17 homers, his steals dropping to 12 and his fielding to .988. He hit .249/.341/.365 in the COVID-19-shortened 2020, tying Asamura for 4th in the PL with 25 doubles. He led the league's second basemen in putouts (261), games (120) and errors (9). In 2021 NPB All-Star Game 1, he came off the bench to get hits off Scott McGough and Robert Suárez in his two at-bats. He was 0 for 2 in Game 2 before Yoshida pinch-hit for him. In 2021, he batted .283/.382/.415 with 36 doubles, 76 walks and 78 runs. He led PL second basemen in games (143), putouts (273), assists (414), errors (9), double plays (76) and fielding (.987). He was also among the league leaders in average (8th, between Takeya Nakamura and Takero Okajima), OBP (6th, between Yuki Yanagita and Yutaro Sugimoto), runs (3rd, behind Yanagita and Takashi Ogino), hits (143, 6th), doubles (tied Yanagita for second, one behind Kensuke Kondo), RBI (67, tied Asamura for 10th), steals (12, 9th), walks (6th) and sacrifice flies (8, 1st). He was named to the Best Nine as the PL's top second sacker overall, with 226 votes to 51 for runner-up Asamura. He also took home the Gold Glove, beating Asamura again, 197 votes to 35 this time.

On June 16, 2022, he homered from the cleanup slot to become the 25th NPB player to homer from every spot in the batting order.