Shugo Maki

Shugo Maki (牧 秀悟)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 205 lb.
• School Chuo University
• High School Matsumoto Daiichi High School

• Born April 21, 1998 in Nakano, Nagano Japan

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Biographical Information

Shugo Maki has played in Nippon Pro Baseball and for the Japanese national team.

Maki was with Japan collegiate team for the 2019 contests against their US counterparts. The Yokohama BayStars took him in the second round of the 2020 NPB draft. He was thrown right in, filling in for the injured Neftali Soto at first base on Opening Day and hitting third. He grounded out against Tomoyuki Sugano his first time up. He got his first hit off Yuhei Takanashi and his first homer off Hirotoshi Takanashi, both within a week of his debut. He kept on rolling from there, becoming the first rookie since Koji Chikamoto to hit for the cycle and setting records for most doubles in consecutive at-bats (5, breaking a mark shared by Ichiro Suzuki, Yoshio Itoi and Shuhei Takahashi). His 35 doubles broke the Central League rookie record held by the great Shigeo Nagashima since 1958. For the 2021 season, he hit .314/.356/.534 with 35 doubles, 22 homers, 73 runs and 71 RBI while he fielded .984 at 2B and handled 329 chances error-free at first to boot. He was third in the CL in average (.003 behind leader Seiya Suzuki, also trailing Shogo Sakakura), third in slugging (after Suzuki and Munetaka Murakami), tied Keita Sano for 7th in runs, was 6th in hits (153, between Toshiro Miyazaki and Ryoma Nishikawa), was second in doubles (four behind Masayuki Kuwahara), tied for 8th in triples (3), tied Jefry Marte for 8th in dingers, was third in OPS (behind Suzuki and Murakami) and 4th with 260 total bases (between Kazuma Okamoto and Tetsuto Yamada). He got 76 votes for the 2021 Central League Rookie of the Year Award, finishing second behind Ryoji Kuribayashi's 201 votes. He was second to Yamada in Best Nine votes at second base while also getting votes at first.

Making his first CL All-Star team, he started 2022 NPB All-Star Game 1 at second base, hitting third. He had a first-inning sac fly off Tomohisa Ohzeki to score Yasutaka Shiomi then struck out against Takahiro Norimoto and was replaced by Yamada. In Game 2, he replaced Kaito Kozono and flew out against Takayuki Kishi before singling off Naoya Masuda. He produced at a .291/.354/.507 clip with 36 doubles, 24 homers and 87 RBI in 2022, fielding .981 at second. He made leaderboards for average (8th, between Yuki Okabayashi and Sakakura), OBP (8th, between Dayán Viciedo and Sakakura), slugging (2nd, a distant .203 behind Murakami), OPS (2nd, 307 behind Murakami), runs (tied Sano and Kazuma Okamoto for 10th), hits (148, 7th), doubles (1st, one ahead of Teruaki Sato), homers (tied Sho Nakata and Gregory Polanco for 4th), RBI (tied Yusuke Ohyama for 2nd, 47 behind Murakami), sacrifice flies (6, tied for second, one behind Sato) and hit-by-pitch (10, tied Sakakura for second, two shy of Shiomi). He was 4th in 2022 CL MVP voting, behind Murakami and pitchers Koyo Aoyagi and Scott McGough. He won the Best Nine at second, with 271 votes to Yamada's 17.

Maki split second base with Yamada on Samurai Japan's team in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. He went deep off Changlong Su of China and Filip Čapka of the Czech Republic and was 3-for-15 entering the finale. He sat out the finale, which Japan won over Team USA, the only game of the Classic he did not appear in. Maki was selected into the 2023 NPB All-Star Game, and he was retired by Takayuki Kato in Game 1. He was the CL's starting second baseman in Game 2, and he hit a RBI single against Yuki Tsumori. Maki ended up hitting .293/.337/.530 with 29 homers in 2023, and he led the league in RBI (103), hits (164), doubles (39) and total bases (296). He also ranked 3rd in homers (after Okamoto and Murakami) and 4th in batting (between Domingo Santana and Yohei Oshima). He won the Best Nine again, and he got 15 points in the CL MVP voting (9th between Kotaro Otake and Sato). In the 2023 Asia Professional Baseball Championship, Maki was 1-for-4 with a single off Jyun-Yueh Tseng of Taiwan in their opener, then went 1-for-4 again with a single versus Eui-lee Lee of South Korea. He crushed a solo home run against Been Gwak of South Korea in the Gold Medal Game, and Japan won Gold thanks to Makoto Kadowaki's walk-off hit.

The Nagano native attended the 2024 NPB All-Star Game, and he crushed a solo home run against Sachiya Yamasaki in Game 1. He added a 2-run shot against Anderson Espinoza in his second at-bat, and he was named the MVP. Maki pinch-hit for Takumu Nakano in the 6th inning of Game 2, but he was retired by Shota Suzuki and Tatsuya Imai. He extended his solid performance in 2024, and he crushed 23 homers with a .294/.346/.491 batting line. He was the 5th player to hit more than 20 homers in his first four seasons, following Michiyo Arito, Tatsunori Hara, Kazuhiro Kiyohara and Hiroo Ishii. Maki was 2nd in runs (76, 6 behind Murakami), 6th in hits (152, between Naoki Yoshikawa and Kaito Kozono), 4th in doubles (33, 4 behind Okamoto), 4th in homers (tied with Seiya Hosokawa), 3rd in RBI (74, behind Okamoto and Murakami) and 3rd in batting (between Santana and Hosokawa). He lost the Best Nine award to Yoshikawa. In the 2024 Nippon Series, he hit .222/.300/.370 with a 3-run shot against Jun Maeda in Game 5, and the BayStars beat the Softbank Hawks in 6 games.

Maki then represented Japan in the 2024 Premier 12. He was 2-for-4 with a RBI single against Coen Wynne of Australia in their opener, and he went 2-for-4 again versus South Korea with a come-from-behind 2-run single against Young-ha Lee in the 5th inning. Maki was 0-for-3 in the next game against Taiwan, then he was 1-for-5, with a RBI single against Frank Medina of Cuba. He had a 0-for-4 record against the USA in the first game of the super round, then he crushed a game-winning grand slam against Pedro García of Venezuela. However, he was 0-for-2 against Taiwan in the next game, and he went 0-for-3 versus Taiwan again in the Gold Medal Game. Japan was shut out by Taiwan and won Silver. His 8 RBI tied Kozono and Diego Castillo for 5th in the tourney.

Further Reading

• Michael Clair: "Meet the dancing, joyful slugger at the heart of Samurai Japan's greatness", mlb.com, November 23, 2024. [1]