Toshiro Miyazaki

Toshiro Miyazaki (宮﨑 敏郎)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 7", Weight 187 lb.

• School Nippon Bunri University
• High School Kyuragi High School

• Born December 12, 1988 in Karatsu, Saga Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Toshiro Miyazaki has been a batting titlist in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Miyazaki played for Sega Sammy in the industrial leagues after college. The Yokohama BayStars took him in the 6th round of the 2012 NPB draft. He spent most of 2013 in the minor Eastern League, hitting .343/.398/.492 with 7 homers in 61 games. Had he qualified, he would have led the EL in average; he was .006 ahead of leader Takahiro Araki and he was .010 ahead of slugging leader Taishi Nakagawa. He made his Central League debut as a pinch-runner for Alex Ramirez. His first at-bat came as a pinch-hitter for Hiroshi Kobayashi. His first hit was June 2 off Masaru Takeda, part of a 3-hit day, capped by a 8th-inning dinger off Tomohisa Nemoto. He hit .250/.310/.404 in 58 plate appearances for the big club, backing up Norihiro Nakamura at third base.

In 2014, though, he barely got a look with Yokohama, where Aarom Baldiris now started at third. He was 2 for 13, though he again hit well on the farm (.322/.352/.432). Had he qualified, he would have been 5th in the EL. In 2015, he split time between the farm (.300/.342/.494, 10 HR in 62 G) and the top team (.289/.331/.362 in 58 G). He handled 155 chances error-free at 2B, backing up Takehiro Ishikawa, with Baldiris still at third. He tied for 6th in the EL in home runs.

By 2016, he was playing fairly regularly as a utility infielder. Backing up José López at 1B, Ishikawa at 2B and Hiroyuki Shirasaki at 3B, he hit .291/.361/.454 with 11 HR in 302 AB and fielded well. Among BayStars players with 100+ games, he was 4th in OPS after Yoshi Tsutsugo, López and Takayuki Kajitani.

Miyazaki became a starter in 2017, hitting .318/.372/.470 with 28 doubles and 15 home runs while fielding .970 at the hot corner. He made the CL team for the 2017 NPB All-Star Games. In Game 1, he replaced Ryosuke Kikuchi at 2B late and grounded out against Taisuke Yamaoka. In Game 2, he started at second and was retired by Chihiro Kaneko and Manabu Mima before Kikuchi succeeded him. He won the CL batting title by .008 ahead of Casey McGehee, was 8th in OBP (between Yoshio Itoi and Kosuke Fukudome), was 8th in slugging (between Yoshihiro Maru and Itoi), was 8th in OPS (between López and Itoi), tied Tomotaka Sakaguchi for 7th in hits (155), tied Kikuchi and Seiya Suzuki for 8th in doubles and tied Kosuke Tanaka for 9th in total bases (230). He led CL third basemen in assists (209), fielding percentage and errors (18). He finished 6th in voting for the 2017 CL MVP, between Tanaka and López. He easily won the Best Nine at third base but lost the Gold Glove to Takashi Toritani (113 votes to 92; 47 votes went to other players). He was the first NPB batting titlist who had never stolen a base in his career (he had one steal in the minors). In the 2017 Japan Series, he homered off Yuito Mori and Tsuyoshi Wada and hit .400/.520/.700 but Yokohama fell to the Softbank Hawks. He won the Fighting Spirit Award as the top player on the losing team.

The defending batting champion improved his OPS over 50 points in 2018. He produced at a .318/.363/.532 clip with 34 doubles, 28 home runs, 71 runs and 71 RBI while fielding .963 at third. He started at third for the CL in 2018 NPB All-Star Game 1 and hit a two-run shot off Yusei Kikuchi for a 5-3 lead and grounded out against Mike Bolsinger before Kento Itohara replaced him. In Game 2, he started at third then moved to first, playing the whole game in a 5-1 loss. He singled off Takayuki Kishi and Ayumu Ishikawa and grounded out against Naoyuki Uwasawa. For the season, he was among the CL leaders in average (8th, between Yuhei Takai and Tomotaka Sakaguchi), slugging (10th, between Wladimir Balentien and Zoilo Almonte), hits (175, 2nd, 3 behind Dayán Viciedo), doubles (3rd, 3 behind Almonte and Nori Aoki), homers (8th), errors at 3B (23, 1st), games at 3B (140, 1st) and total bases (293, 3rd, behind Tetsuto Yamada and Tsutsugo). He again was the runaway winner for the Best Nine (250 votes, compared to 23 for Kazuma Okamoto and 8 for McGehee) and also won the Gold Glove (120 votes to 79 for McGehee and 28 for Yusuke Oyama).

He slumped to .284/.334/.443 with 15 home runs in 2019 and led CL third basemen in fielding (.979) but lost the Gold Glove to Shuhei Takahashi. He has started 2020 very well (.330/.370/.536 after 46 G).