Sh?ta ?no 大野 ?太
Ohno with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
Chunichi Dragons ? No. 72
Catcher /Coach
Born: ( 1987-01-13 ) January 13, 1987 (age 37) ?gaki, Gifu , Japan
Batted: Right Threw: Right
NPB debut
5 April, 2009, for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
Last NPB appearance
3 October, 2023, for the Chunichi Dragons
NPB statistics
Batting average	.214
Home runs	31
RBI	168
Teams
As player Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters ( 2009 – 2017 ) Chunichi Dragons ( 2018 - 2023 ) As coach Chunichi Dragons ( 2024 -Present)
Career highlights and awards
Japan Series winner ( 2016 ) Golden Glove Award (2016) Pacific League Battery Award, with Shohei Ohtani (2015) NPB All-Star (2014)

Sh?ta ?no (大野 ?太, born January 13, 1987, in ?gaki, Gifu ) is a current coach and former Japanese professional baseball catcher for the Chunichi Dragons in Japan 's Nippon Professional Baseball . He previously played for the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters .

Early career [ edit ]

As an elementary school student in Gifu Prefecture , ?no played for local team Arasaki Baseball boys where he was a catcher, pitcher and third baseman. In middle school, he played as a third baseman for Sein? Boys where he was selected in the representative team for Gifu prefecture. From middle school, it was ?no's dream to play for Gifu powerhouse, Gifu Commercial High School , but as many of his Gifu representative teammates were thinking the same thing, ?no entered Gifu S?g? Gakuen High School instead. ^[1]

From his first year of high school, ?no was a regular at third base. In fall, the team's catcher damaged his shoulder and ?no converted to catcher. ^[1] Two years in a row, ?no was able to help lead his team to an appearance in the final of the Gifu prefectural tournament, but both times they would be bundled out with the final team he faced being Gifu Commercial High School. Throughout his high school career, ?no hit 29 homeruns.

Following graduation from high school, ?no enrolled at Toyo University where he was on the bench in his first spring behind junior year catcher, Daisuke Tanaka . From spring of his sophomore year, ?no became the regular catcher for the team and helped the team to its fourth consecutive season win and second consecutive Meiji Jingu Baseball Tournament win. In spring of his senior year, he was named the first catcher in 22 years to be named MVP ^[2] and was named in the best 9 for 4 straight season from spring of his sophomore year. ^[1] In the Tohto University Baseball League , ?no played in 55 games racking up 43 hits, a batting average of .259 with 6 homeruns and 19 RBIs.

On 30 October 2008, ?no was the first round pick for the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters at the 2008 NPB Draft ^[3] and signed a provisional contract with a ￥100 million sign-on bonus and a ￥13 million yearly salary. ^{[4] [5]} It was the first time the Fighters had selected a catcher in the first round since 1998 and only the second in their history. ^[6]

Professional career [ edit ]

Nippon Ham Fighters [ edit ]

Rookie Year [ edit ]

?no was assigned to the first team in 2009 spring training and stayed that way up to opening day. On April 5, he made his debut against the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles . On April 11, he made his starting debut against the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and helped lead Shugo Fujii to keeping runs off the board. From then on, ?no became the preferred catcher for Fujii and aside from starts from Tomoya Yagi and Yu Darvish who preferred Shinya Tsuruoka , he started in more games. In August, ?no caught influenza and was absent for the team for a short time. Over the course of his rookie season, ?no was not deregistered from the team even once. On November 5, he became the first rookie catcher to start in the 2009 Japan Series .

2010?2013 [ edit ]

In 2010, ?no would once again battle with Tsuruoka for the first-team mask. Even though Fujii had moved to the Yomiuri Giants in the off-season, ?no became the main catcher for southpaws and that year, 14-winner Masaru Takeda allowing him to make even more appearances. Also, different from his rookie year, ?no was given starts to catch for Yagi and Darvish.

In 2011, as Tsuruoka suffered injury before the start of the season, ?no played in all games until his return. But once Tsuruoka did make his return he tended to be more favoured and ?no's chances were harder to come by. On October 15, due to back pain, he experienced his first ever de-registration from the first team but made his comeback in the first game of the Pacific League Climax Series. Compared to previous seasons, ?no's performance with the bat dropped considerably but he led the league in runners thrown out percentage with .323.

The following year, ?no would once again share time behind the plate with Tsuruoka acting as the primary catcher for Brian Wolfe and Takeda, but due to poor batting form and Tsuruoka's good form, Tsuruoka would take over as the primary catcher. As a result, on July 4, ?no was deregistered from the first team for the first time not related to injury. Ten days later on July 14, ?no would return to the top team but would only catch for Wolfe and Keisuke Tanimoto leading to his poorest yearly statistics up until that point. In the off-season, ?no would change his number to 2 as worn by club legends Shinji Takahashi and Michihiro Ogasawara .

In 2013, competition with Tsuruoka would continue but with injury sidelining Tsuruoka in June, ?no's appearances increased over the tail end of the season. He would hit over .250 with an OPS of over .700 to mark his best batting totals to date while on the defensive side he was the only catcher in NPB to have throw runners out with over a 40% success rate at .421.

2014?2017 [ edit ]

With Tsuruoka's departure to the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks via free agency in the 2013 off-season, ?no was given the starting day mask for the first time since 2011. But due to poor hitting once more, May addition from the Giants, Yuya Ichikawa saw more time behind the plate but following the end of May, competition would return to normal with ?no and Ichikawa sharing duties. On May 17 in a game against the Chiba Lotte Marines with the scores tied at 1?1 in the 11th inning, ?no hit his career first walk-off home run off Takahiro Matsunaga . ^[7] Over the course of the season, ?no played in a career high of 105 games with a personal best 6 homeruns.

In 2015, ?no started the season on the farm after suffering from elbow pain but returned to the first team on April 28, making his first appearance on May 4. 2014's back-up catcher, Ichikawa also underwent surgery for a hernia problem leaving no senior catcher with the top team. In the first team, Ry? Ishikawa and Kensuke Kond? filled in behind the plate, with ?no playing a support role until he returned to fill fitness. From June, ?no's appearances increased while in July, Kond? was made designated hitter due to his batting prowess. With the return of Ichikawa, ?no went back to sharing the plate. For the first time since turning pro, ?no ended the season with zero homeruns. At the end of the season, he was made captain of the team after Naoki Miyanishi stepped down. He would also give up the 2 jersey to Kenshi Sugiya while changing to the 27 left open by the retirement of Satoshi Nakajima . ^[8]

The following year, ?no would have one of his most successful seasons and returned as starting day catcher for the first time in two years. He would proceed to hit his first homer in two years against Kodai Senga on April 23 against the SoftBank Hawks. ^[9] On July 8 against the Lotte Marines, he would hit homers in back-to-back plate appearances ^[10] and would otherwise end his season with personal best hitting figures.

In 2017, ?no would play in 83 games, however due to a right elbow injury, only batted .221 with 3 homeruns and 13 RBI including a .098 percentage of runners thrown out. With the team finishing the season 5th, on October 16 underwent endoscopic elbow surgery which was ultimately successful. ^[11] ?no, eligible for free agency, would elect to explore the market on November 9 with negotiations with the Fighters ongoing. ^[12] At this point, hometown team, Chunichi Dragons entered the race for his services after making public their desire to improve their catching stocks and on December 9, the move was finalised. ^[13]

Chunichi Dragons [ edit ]

2018?Present [ edit ]

On December 9, 2017, the Dragons revealed they had captured ?no's signature having agreed to a 3-year, ￥250 million deal and receiving the 27 jersey previously worn by Motonobu Tanishige . ^{[14] [13]}

In the 2018 season, ?no's shoulder flared up, restricting him to only 50 appearances with Masato Matsui taking over as main catcher for the majority of season. ^[15]

In 2019, ?no was on the starting day roster but due to the rise of Takuma Kat? and the re-occurrence of his right elbow pain, he was de-registered from the first team on May 31. On August 25, ?no returned to the first team but ended the season with a career low of 34 games.

International career [ edit ]

On October 18, 2016, ?no was called up to the Japanese national baseball team for exhibition games against the Netherlands and Mexico . ^[16] On November 12, he would hit a walk-off single to win the game. ^[17]

?no was selected for the 2017 World Baseball Classic however only played in one game against China in the first round. ^[18]

Play style [ edit ]

Fighters pitching coach Kazuyuki Atsuzawa described ?no's ability to lead in comparison to Shinya Tsuruoka as similar to motherly figure, Kakaadenka . ^[19]

While providing excellent lead from behind the plate, ?no's biggest weapon is his pop-time and his flat throws. ^[20] In addition to his strong arm, his "catching ability is good" so that makes his throw-out percentage high. However, from 2017 onwards with his elbow injury in the background, his ability to throw out runners has significantly decreased.

External links [ edit ]

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball Reference (Minors) , NPB

References [ edit ]