Motohiro Shima

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Motohiro Shima (嶋 基宏)

BR register page

Biographical Information[edit]

Motohiro Shima caught in Nippon Pro Baseball for 16 years.

Shima won a batting crown as a college junior, then won a Tokyo Metropolitan University League Best Nine nod as a senior. The Rakuten Golden Eagles took him in the third round of the 2006 NPB draft. As a rookie, he became Rakuten's starting backstop and made the Pacific League All-Star team; he was 0-for-1 in each of the 2007 NPB All-Star Games. He only hit .183/.234/.221 for the season, though, with 47 runs produced in 125 games. His first career hit was on March 28 off Toshiya Sugiuchi and his first homer came a month and a day later against Tomoya Yagi.

The Gifu native fell into a part-time role in 2008, splitting action with Akihito Fujii; Shima hit .230/.288/.296. He had similar numbers (.233/.303/.281) in 2009 while reclaiming the primary spot. He really stepped it up in 2010, batting .315/.380/.377. He was voted into the 2010 NPB All-Star Game, and he again went 0-for-1 in each of two games. He won the NPB Gold Glove at catcher in the PL, was 8th in the league in average (between Munenori Kawasaki and Hiroyuki Nakajima and 9th in OBP (between Nakajima and Hitoshi Tamura. He was also named to the Best Nine as the league's top backstop. Shima was the first Rakuten catcher to qualify for the batting title.

Shima slumped to .224/.287/.290 in 129 games in 2011, and he still won the Most Valuable Battery Award along with Rakuten's ace Masahiro Tanaka. He attended the 2011 NPB All-Star Game, but he was hitless in 4 at-bats. He led PL catchers in putouts (809), assists (74), errors (11) and steals allowed (78). He fractured his right hand in 2012, so he only played 91 games with a .291/.376/.332 batting line. He still attended the 2012 NPB All-Star Game, and he went 1-for-3, with a single against Daisuke Miura in Game 3. Shima then crushed 4 homers with a .257/.318/.318 batting line in 2013, and he won the Gold Glove (he fielded a league-best .997 and led with 96 assists and 39 runners caught stealing), Most Valuable Battery Award and Best Nine. He also attended the 2013 NPB All-Star Game, and he was 1-for-2 in Game 3 with a single against Atsushi Nomi. In Rakuten's first Nippon Series appearance - the 2013 Nippon Series, Shima hit .261/.346/.261 as Rakuten's starting catcher in all 7 games, and he won his first title as the Golden Eagles beat the Yomiuri Giants.

In 2014, Shima played 126 games with a .263/.375/.309 batting line and attended the 2014 NPB All-Star Games; he went 0-for-1 in each of the two games. He then hit .219/.338/.287 in 117 games ion 2015, and he was 0-for-3 in the 2015 NPB All-Star Game. Shima made it onto Japan's roster for the 2015 Premier 12, and he hit .211/.250/.211 in 6 games as their starting catcher; Japan won Bronze in the event. Shima fractured his left hand in 2016, so he only played 80 games with a .271/.393/.357 batting line. He was on Japan's primary roster for the 2017 World Baseball Classic, but he withdrew due to calf injury. Shima was voted into the 2017 NPB All-Star Game, and he was 0-for-2 in 2 games. He ended up hitting .199/.339/.263 in 112 games in 2017.

Shima played 113 games with a .206/.277/.251 batting line in 2018, but he suffered from a waist injury so he only played 57 games with a .209/.298/.336 batting line in 2019. The Golden Eagles then released him, and he signed with the Yakult Swallows. Shima was 4-for-21 in 2020, and he went 2-for-10 in 2021. Yakult won the 2021 Japan Series. He only played 2 games for the top team in 2022, and he announced his retirement. Shima then became the battery coach for the Swallows in 2023, and he became their bench coach from 2024 to 2025. The Chunichi Dragons named him their new bench coach in 2026.

Overall, Shima hit .240/.325/.299 with 936 hits and 26 homers in 16 seasons in NPB. As of 2025, he tied Yutaka Wada for 38th in sacrifice bunts in NPB history with 212. He fielded .994 behind the dish, throwing out 26.5% of would-be base-stealers.

Sources[edit]

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