Takashi Toritani

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Takashi Toritani (鳥谷 敬)

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Biographical Information[edit]

Takashi Toritani played in Nippon Pro Baseball for 18 years.

Toritani is a natural left-hander who learned to throw right-handed while in high school. A two-way player in high school, his fastball was timed at 88 mph. In college, Toritani won a Triple Crown in the Tokyo Big Six University League as a sophomore and then won a batting title as a senior. Overall, he hit .333 in college. He batted .333/.400/.650 in the 2002 World University Championship to help Japan take the Bronze Medal. He tied Eric Patterson for second in the event with three steals, trailing only Lingfeng Sun. He was named the All-Star shortstop in the event. The Hanshin Tigers took the highly-touted shortstop in the first round of the 2003 NPB draft. As a rookie in 2004, he backed up Atsushi Fujimoto at short and Kentaro Sekimoto at third and hit an unimpressive .251/.320/.345 while fielding .982. His first hit was a single off Yukinaga Maeda on April 2. On May 27, he hit his first homer, against Kazumasa Azuma.

Becoming the starting shortstop for the Tigers in 2005, Toritani forced Fujimoto over to second base. Hitting 7th or 8th in the early part of the season, he was batting in the #2 slot by year's end. Overall, the second-year player improved to .278/.343/.376 with 82 runs and 27 doubles though he did strike out 115 times. He fielded .985 and made the Central League All-Star team, and he went 3-for-5 in the 2005 NPB All-Star Games. He was 9th in the CL in doubles and was 10th in strikeouts. He went 4 for 14 with a walk and a double in the 2005 Japan Series but Hanshin hit under .200 as a team and Toritani failed to score or drive in a run against the Chiba Lotte Marines with little support (Akihiro Yano and Shinjiro Hiyama were the only others to provide any real help).

Toritani kept improving in 2006, hitting .289/.362/.431 with 28 doubles and 15 home runs. He had 490 assists, setting a new NPB record at short. He tied Alex Ramirez for 9th in the CL in doubles, tied Norihiro Akahoshi for 9th in walks (60), was 10th in strikeouts (111) and was 8th in OBP (between Tomonori Maeda and Osamu Hamanaka. He was presumably a serious candidate for the Best Nine but Hirokazu Ibata was chosen instead. He made his second All-Star team, and he had a 1-for-3 record, with a single against Masahide Kobayashi, in the 2006 NPB All-Star Game. That year, he had Lasik surgery to improve his vision. Toritani fell a bit in 2007 as the 25/26-year-old hit .273/.350/.373 with 27 extra-base hits. Toritani played 398 consecutive games with appearing in every inning, a NPB record for a shortstop. He was 10th in the CL with 154 hits (between Yoshinobu Takahashi and Shuichi Murata) and 3rd in triples (4). That season, he often hit leadoff instead of the faster Akahoshi, who batted second. He stole 7 bases in 11 tries (overall, he was 30-for-58 in his first five seasons in NPB).

The Waseda alumnus had a batting line of .281/.365/.411 in 2008 and drove in 80 while usually batting sixth. He set a Hanshin franchise record for RBI by a shortstop. He was third in the CL with six triples, one behind co-leaders Kazuki Fukuchi and Yasushi Iihara. He was also 7th in RBI (between Yuki Yoshimura and Tyrone Woods) and 4th with 68 walks (between Akahoshi and Michihiro Ogasawara). He made the Best Nine as the top shortstop in the CL. In 2009, the veteran infielder was placed in the #3 spot in the batting order and showed his best pop with 31 doubles and 20 home runs. He hit .288/.368/.465 with 84 runs, 75 RBI and 65 walks. He lost the Best Nine nod at short to Yomiuri's Hayato Sakamoto. He was 4th in the CL in runs, 3 behind co-leaders Sakamoto, Tony Blanco and Norichika Aoki. He was also 7th in doubles, tied Yoshiyuki Kamei for 7th in total bases (250), was 6th in walks and tied Kanemoto for 7th in OBP. He also fielded .990, leading NPB shortstops while setting a record for a shortstop whose home stadium had a dirt field. Hirokazu Ibata beat him out for the Gold Glove.

Toritani crushed 19 homers with a .301/.373/.475 batting line in 2010, and he was 6th in hits (173, between Takahiro Arai and Keiichi Hirano), 9th in doubles (31, between Jun Hirose and Murata), 4th in RBI (104, between Arai and Kazuhiro Wada) and 4th in walks (66, between Hiroyasu Tanaka and Masahiko Morino). Toritani set the NPB record for most RBI in a season primarily as a shortstop, and he won his second Best Nine award as a shortstop. He extended his solid performance in 2011, and he hit .300/.395/.414 with 5 homers. He led the league in triples (7) and OBP, and he was 4th in batting (between Shinya Miyamoto and Hirano), 7th in hits (150, between Akihiro Higashide and Sakamoto), 2nd in doubles (28, 1 behind Kenta Kurihara) and 6th in steals (16).

The Tokyo native was selected into the 2012 NPB All-Star Game, and he was 1-for-8, with a double against Yuki Saito in Game 1. He ended up hitting .262/.373/.375 with 8 homers, and he was 2nd in triples (6, 1 behind Sho Aranami), 9th in hits (135, tied with Aranami and Shingo Kawabata), 10th in RBI (59, between Hisayoshi Chono and Murata), 9th in steals (15, only caught 4 times, a better success rate than he had as a younger player!) and 5th in OBP (between Yohei Ohshima and Wada). Toritani then made it onto Japan's roster for the 2013 World Baseball Classic. He was hitless in the first round, and he hit a clutch single against Hung-Wen Chen in the 9th inning against Chinese Taipei. Toritani then successfully stole second, and he tied the game thanks to Hirokazu Ibata's single. He then crushed a leadoff homer against Rob Cordemans of the Netherlands, and he hit a triple against Randy Fontánez of Puerto Rico in the semifinals; Japan won Bronze in the event, which he finished at .267/.400/.667, more than making up for his slow start.

After returning to the league, Toritani extended his elite performance and hit .282/.402/.410. He led the league with 104 walks, and he set the Hanshin team record for most walks in a season. He also broke the Tigers record with a 47-game on-base streak, and that was the third longest streak in CL history (behind Hideki Matsui and Sadaharu Oh). He attended the 2013 NPB All-Star Games, but he was hitless in 6 games. He ranked 9th in batting in 2013 (between Morino and Chono), 5th in hits (150, between Tony Blanco and Sakamoto), 3rd in doubles (30, between Tsuyoshi Nishioka and Sakamoto), 2nd in triples (4, 1 behind Yoshihiro Maru), 9th in RBI (65, tied with Chono) and 8th in steals (15). He won his 4th Gold Glove, and he was named to the Best Nine team again.

Toritani was still one of the most stable shortstops in the league in 2014, and he hit .313/.406/.415 with 8 homers. He became the first shortstop in NPB history to play in every inning for three straight seasons, and he also broke Fumio Fujimura's team record for most consecutive games played with 1,014. Toritani attended the 2014 NPB All-Star Games, and he had a 3-for-6 record, with a double against Hiroyuki Fukuyama in Game 1. For the year, he ranked 7th in batting (between Yuhei Takai and Kazuhiro Hatakeyama), 7th in hits (172, between Takai and Maru), 9th in RBI (51, between Yoshi Tsutsugo and Héctor Luna) and 3rd in OBP (between Maru and Tetsuto Yamada). He won the Best Nine and Gold Glove awards

In 2015, Toritani played 143 games with a .281/.380/.367 batting line, and he won his 6th Best Nine and 4th Gold Glove. He was voted into the 2015 NPB All-Star Game, and he went 3-for-5. Toritani ranked 7th in batting (between Ryosuke Hirata and Kosuke Fukudome), 4th in hits (155, between Tsutsugo and José López), 4th in triples (4, tied with Takai and Ohshima) and 2nd in walks (89, 5 behind Maru). He slumped to .236/.344/.323 in 2016, and he was 8th in steals (13, tied with Sakamoto, Ryosuke Kikuchi and Masahiro Araki) and 6th in walks (75, between Hirata and Tanaka). He bounced back soon, and he had a .293/.390/.377 batting line after he was moved to third base in 2017. Toritani was also selected into the 2017 NPB All-Star Game, and he had a 1-for-4 record. On September 8 against Shoichi Ino, he collected his 2,000th career hit and qualified for the Meikyukai. He ranked 8th in batting (between Seiya Suzuki and Sakamoto), 8th in triples (3) and 5th in walks (77, tied with Fukudome). He won the Gold Glove as a third baseman. It would be the last season that the veteran would make the league leaderboards.

Toritani broke Taira Fujita's record and became the all-time hits leader for the Tigers on October 4, but his batting line fell to .232/.333/.295 in 2018. His 1,939 consecutive games played record ended this season, and it was the second-longest record in NPB history, following Sachio Kinugasa's 2,215. Toritani struggled again in 2019 as his batting line was .207/.298/.261, and the Tigers released him. He signed with the Chiba Lotte Marines, and he went 5-for-36 in 2020. He broke Takuro Ishii's NPB record with his 1,767th game played as a shortstop on October 28. Toritani became the oldest player to start as a shortstop on opening day in 2021, but he was 9-for-53 and he announced his retirement.

Overall, Toritani hit .278/.368/.393 with 2,099 hits, 353 doubles, 138 homers and 830 RBI in 18 seasons in NPB. As of 2025, he was 45th in runs in NPB history (1,004, tied with Yamada), 35th in hits (between Norihiro Nakamura and Atsuya Furuta), 45th in doubles (tied with Maru and Maeda), 50th in triples (49, tied with Atsunori Inaba and Makoto Shimada), 90th in RBI (between Akinobu Okada and Junichi Kashiwabara), 15th in walks (1,055, between Kazuhiro Yamauchi and Takumi Kuriyama) and 47th in OBP (between Toru Ogawa and Shinnosuke Abe).

Sources[edit]

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