Hiroki Minei

Hiroki Minei (嶺井 博希)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 8", Weight 187 lb.

• School Asia University
• High School Okinawa Shogaku High School

• Born June 4, 1991 in Nanjo, Okinawa Japan

BR Register page

Biographical Information

Catcher Hiroki Minei has played in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Minei was a member of the Japanese collegiate team that played a series of games against its counterparts from the U.S in 2013. He was drafted by the Yokohama DeNA BayStars in the third round of the 2013 NPB draft. He first played for the BayStars of the Central League in 2014. Only sometimes a regular, he has appeared for Yokohama's ni-gun squad in the Eastern League every season since his debut, except for 2018, when he spent the entire season at the top level, hitting .177 in 91 games with 5 homers and 25 RBIs. That batting average was uncharacteristically low, as his career average as of the end of the 2024 season was .220. His 209 at-bats in 2018 were the most for him until 2022, when he had 244 in 93 games, hitting .205 with 5 homers and 30 RBIs. He was originally a switch-hitter, but gave up on hitting lefthanded after 2016, and since then has often been used as a platoon player, starting mainly against left-handed pitchers.

The Okinawa native was a member of the Yokohama team that won the Central League pennant in 2017 and faced the Softbank Hawks in the 2017 Japan Series. In Game 5 of the series on November 2nd, with Yokohama facing elimination, he delivered a key blow as a pinch-hitter in the 6th inning, when he hit into an error by 2B Kenji Akashi that scored Yoshitomo Tsutsugo with the go-ahead run in a 5 - 4 win. The BayStars lost the next game and the series, however. He had been in his team's doghouse after his throwing error in the 5th inning of Game 1 contributed to a seven-run outburst by the Hawks in a 10-1 win. As a result, he had lost his starting job to back-up Shuto Takajoh, but regained it for the final game, on November 4th, which was only decided in the 11th inning. With the game tied, he managed a hit off Softbank closer Dennis Sarfate in the top of the 11th but was left stranded, and Softbank scored the series-winning run in the bottom of the inning.

Minei shared the starting catcher spot with Hikaru Ito in 2018, and he played 91 games with a .177/.228/.282 batting line. He then hit .211/.280/.316 in 64 games in 2019, and he only got 60 at-bats with a .327/.383/.382 batting line in 2020. Minei slumped to .189/.250/.243 in 2021, and he returned to the starting catcher spot in 2022. He hit .205/.237/.295 in 93 games that season, and he announced that he would become a free agent. The Softbank Hawks signed him, and he played 44 games with a .206/.222/.441 batting line in 2023. He didn't get many chances as the Hawks already had star catcher Takuya Kai, and he only got 6 at-bats in 2024 for the big club.

Sources

• Wiki Japan