NPB Player Movement Database

Shugo Maki does not look like a hitting machine. He looks like a second baseman with a slightly stubborn face, which may be why opposing pitchers keep learning the hard way. Since arriving at the Yokohama DeNA BayStars out of Chuo University, Maki has done one thing with almost boring reliability: hit doubles. He reached 30 of them in each of his first four seasons — a feat no player in NPB history had managed before him — and he did it not with brute force but with a right-handed stroke built to drive the ball into the right-center gap, over and over, as if the outfield wall owed him money.

He has since grown into the club's captain and its emotional center, the player Yokohama fans watch when the game tightens. Maki finished the 2026 regular season batting .283 with a .363 on-base percentage and .564 slugging percentage, collecting 119 hits, 28 doubles, 30 home runs and 75 RBIs in 108 games. The doubles total fell short of 30, but the home run total reached that mark, showing how much damage the same compact swing can do beyond the gaps. He is not the loudest star in Japanese baseball. He is the one pitchers would least like to face with a runner on second.