Sho Nakata

Sho Nakata (中田 翔)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weigght 210 lb.

• High School Osaka Toin High School

• Born April 22, 1989 in Hiroshima, Hiroshima Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Sho Nakata won 5 Best Nine awards and hit more than 300 homers in his 17-year career in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Nakata hit 87 home runs while in high school, a Japanese record. On November 3, 2006, during a prefectural tournament game, the 17-year-old cracked a 550' homer out of the park then over a couple houses before landing across the street. That shattered the old record for the park, 425' by future NPB regular Osamu Hamanaka. He also was timed at 94 mph as a pitcher in high school. The Minnesota Twins, New York Mets and Seattle Mariners all expressed interest, Seattle offering $2.5 million. Nakata turned them down to play in Japan. The Nippon Ham Fighters won the lottery for the rights to Nakata, taking him with their first pick of the 2007 NPB draft. He struggled in spring training in 2008 and was sent down to ni-gun for seasoning. He fared well, hitting .255/.339/.464 with 11 HR in 196 AB. He was five homers behind Eastern League leader Yohei Kaneko despite missing the last two months after knee surgery.

In 2009, Nakata starred in the minors, tying the Eastern League RBI record (95, previously set by Corey Paul) and setting a new homer record (30, held by Paul before). He got into 22 games for the big club, debuting on May 23 and singling off Ricky Barrett in his first at-bat in Nippon Pro Baseball. He was 10 for 36 with two doubles, three runs, one RBI, one walk and 15 whiffs for Nippon Ham. Nakata was moved to the outfield in 2010 and again missing two months with knee surgery. He hit .233/.291/.395 with 9 HR but 61 K in 210 AB. His first NPB homer came off Yuta Omine on July 20. He got six votes for the 2010 Pacific League Rookie of the Year Award, well back of Ryo Sakakibara's 87. He also trailed Keisuke Katto, Masahiko Morifuku and Takashi Ogino.

As a regular in 2011, Nakata hit .237/.283/.408 with 32 doubles, 18 home runs and 91 RBI. In a low-offense season, he ranked among the Pacific League leaders in many departments. He was third in RBI (behind Takeya Nakamura and Hiroyuki Nakajima), second in doubles (to Kazuo Matsui), tied for third in homers (with Aarom Baldiris, trailing Nakamura by 30 and Nobuhiro Matsuda by 7), tied for 5th in total bases (215, even with Mitsutaka Goto), second in sacrifice flies (8, behind Nakajima), third in strikeouts (133, one behind co-leaders Chung-Shou Yang and Nakamura), tied for 6th in double play grounders (12, even with Baldiris) and 9th in slugging (between Goto and Atsunori Inaba). He was also selected into the 2011 NPB All-Star Games, and he was 2-for-11.

Nakata blasted 24 homers with a .239/.307/.420 batting line in 2012, and he led the league with 79 runs. He broke Tokuzo Harada and Yoshiyuki Iwamoto's NPB record as he completed 9 double plays as an outfielder, and he set the team record with 19 assists as an outfielder. He was 2nd in homers (24, 3 behind Takeya Nakamura) and 3rd in RBI (77, behind Dae-ho Lee and Nakamura). Nakata was voted into the 2012 NPB All-Star Game, and he was 3-for-8, with a double against Shohei Tateyama in Game 1. He hit .238/.333/.381 in the 2012 Nippon Series with a game-tying 3-run shot against Hirokazu Sawamura in Game 6, but the Fighters lost to the Yomiuri Giants in 6 games.

After the '12 season, Nakata made it onto Japan's roster for the 2013 World Baseball Classic. He hit .286/.385/.286 in 6 games, and Japan won Bronze in the event. Nakata improved to .305/.381/.550 with 28 round-trippers in 2013, and he was 8th in batting (between Akira Nakamura and Lee), 2nd in OPS (.011 behind Hideto Asamura) and 2nd in homers (3 behind Michel Abreu). He won his first Best Nine award, and he was 3-for-11 in the 2013 NPB All-Star Games. Nakata extended his solid performance, and he crushed 27 homers with a .269/.344/.456 batting line the next year. He led the league with 100 RBI, and he was 4th in homers (between Wily Mo Peña and Dai-Kang Yang). Nakata won a Best Nine again. He attended the 2014 NPB All-Star Game, and he hit a 2-run double against Daisuke Yamai in Game 2. Nakata shined in the playoffs, and he hit a game-winning solo shot against Yoshihisa Hirano in the 10th inning of the 2014 PLCS Game 3 to help the Fighters eliminate the Orix Buffaloes. Nakata then crushed a homer in each of the first three games against the Softbank Hawks in the final stage, and he was the only player in NPB history to crush a homer in 4 straight games in the playoffs. The Hawks still eliminated the Fighters in 6 games.

Nakata blasted 30 homers with a .263/.339/.479 batting line in 2015 after he was moved to the first base due to a knee injury, and he was 9th in doubles (26, between Lee and Takumi Kuriyama), 6th in homers (30, between Ernesto Mejia and Lee) and 2nd in RBI (102, 22 behind Nakamura). He won his third Best Nine, and he collected his first NPB Gold Glove as a first baseman. Nakata was voted into the 2015 NPB All-Star Game, and he went 2-for-8, with a RBI double against Yasuaki Yamasaki in Game 1. After that season, he made onto Japan's roster for the 2015 Premier 12. Nakata hit .429/.528/.821 with 3 homers, and he led the event with 12 hits, 23 total bases and 15 RBI. He crushed a game-winning three-run dinger against Dana Eveland of the USA to send Japan to the semifinals, and Japan won Bronze.

The Hiroshima native then crushed 25 homers with a .250/.308/.431 batting line in 2016, and he led the league in RBI again with 110. He was also 8th in doubles (26, tied with Mejia) and 5th in homers. He attended the 2016 NPB All-Star Game, and he was hitless in 4 at-bats. Nakata shined in the playoffs again. He hit a clutch 2-run double against Jay Jackson in 2016 Nippon Series Game 3, and he added a solo shot against Akitake Okada in Game 4. He drew a game-winning RBI walk in Game 6 against Jackson, and he won his first title as the Fighters topped the Hiroshima Carp in 6 games. Nakata represented Japan in the 2017 World Baseball Classic. He was 0-for-3 against Cuba, then he hit a game-winning homer against Matthew Williams of Australia. He added a 2-run shot against Quan Gan of China, and he was hitless in 3 at-bats against Cuba in the second round. Nakata then hit a 3-run homer against Rick Vanden Hurk to help Japn topped Netherlands, and he was Japan's starting first baseman against the USA in the semifinals, but he was 0-for-4 and Japan lost. He tied Yoshi Tsutsugo and Didi Gregorius for 3rd in the tourney with 8 RBI (behind Wladimir Balentien and Carlos Correa) and tied for 2nd in homers (even with John Andreoli, Alfredo Despaigne, Nelson Cruz, Correa and Tsutsugo, one behind Balentien). Eric Hosmer was named the All-Star 1B

Nakata may have been influenced by the WBC in the 2017 season, and his batting line fell to .216/.310/.367 with 16 homers. He was still selected into the 2017 NPB All-Star Game, and he was 2-for-4, with a homer against Yamasaki in Game 2. He bounced back in 2018, and he had a .265/.316/.463 batting line with 25 homers while leading the league with 13 sacrifice flies and 24 double play grounders. He was 2 sacrifice flies shy from breaking Katsuo Osugi's NPB record. Nakata also attended the 2018 NPB All-Star Game, but he was plunked by Daisuke Matsuzaka and left the game. He ranked 9th in homers (tied with Stefen Romero), 3rd in RBI (106, between Hotaka Yamakawa and Yuki Yanagita) and 4th in doubles (32, between Tomoya Mori and Shogo Nakamura). He won his third Gold Glove but Yamakawa got the Best Nine award at first.

The veteran slugger crushed 24 homers with a .242/.329/.449 batting line in 2019, and he was 10th in RBI (80, between Masataka Yoshida and Taishi Ota). He then blasted a career-high 31 homers with a .239/.320/.491 batting line in 2020, and he won his 5th Best Nine and 4th Gold Glove. Nakata led the league in RBI with 108, and he was the only RBI leader to have fewer hits (105) than RBI in NPB history. He also set the NPB record for lowest batting average as a RBI leader. Nakata ranked 2nd in homers, one behind Asamura. He won another Best Nine. However, he slumped to .193/.273/.304 in 2021, and he was involved in a bullying scandal in the middle of the season. Thus, the Fighters traded him to the Yomiuri Giants for nothing on August 20. Nakata played 34 games with a .154/.274/.297 batting line for the Giants in the rest of the season for Yomiuri.

Nakata bounced back in 2022, and he crushed 24 homers with a .269/.327/.506 batting line. He won the Gold Glove for the Central League; he was the first player in NPB history to win a Gold Glove as a first baseman in both leagues. Nakata ranked 4th in homers (tied with Shugo Maki and Gregory Polanco) and 9th in RBI (79, tied with Shogo Sakakura). He was selected into the 2023 NPB All-Star Game, but he was hitless in three games. He ended up hitting .255/.306/.464 with 15 homers in 2023, and he opt out from his contract. The Chunichi Dragons signed him, but Nakata struggled in 2024 as his batting line was .217/.249/.321. He was 10-for-63 in 2025, and he announced his retirement.

Overall, Nakata hit .248/.316/.439 with 1,579 hits and 309 homers in 17 seasons in NPB. As of 2025, he was 98th in doubles (278, tied with Kazunori Shinozuka and Takahiro Ikeyama), 42nd in homers (between Tetsuto Yamada and Katsumi Hirosawa), 36th in RBI (1,087, between Tatsunori Hara and Kazuhiro Wada), 26th in strikeouts (1,340, between Kuriyama and Sadaharu Oh) and 15th in sacrifice flies (76, between Kuriyama and Asamura).

Sources

• Japan Baseball Daily
• NPB website
• Taiwan Baseball Wiki
• Wiki Japan
• World Baseball Classic