The 2026 professional baseball finally kicks off on March 27th. There's endless interest in which team will win the league championship and which players will claim individual titles. Before the season begins, let's take a look at some players who, despite being key players on their teams, surprisingly haven't won any individual titles other than Best Nine, Golden Glove, or Rookie of the Year.
Hiroya Miyagi (Orix Buffaloes) is one such example. In his second professional year in 2021, Miyagi recorded 13 wins and ERA of 2.51, earning him the Rookie of the Year award, and went on to achieve double-digit win for three consecutive years from that year. In 2023, he posted ERA of 2.27, but surprisingly, he did not win any individual titles. In 2024, he was in a position to challenge for the Best ERA title, and in his final appearance against Rakuten Eagles, he pitched 6 innings, allowing only one earned runs, but he was 1 1/3 innings short of the required number innings pitched, and the game was called due to rain, so he did not win the Best ERA.
The same is true for Masato Morishita (Hiroshima). In 2020, Morishita won 10 games with an outstanding ERA of 1.91, earning him the Rookie of the Year award. In his third year, 2022, he pitched a league-leading 178 2/3 innings and recorded 2 shutout game, but ERA was 3.17, ranking 9th in the league. He has shown consistent ERA in pitch for two consecutive years, but has not yet managed to win a title.
Among fielder, Ryoma Nishikawa (Orix Buffaloes) won the Best Nine award in 2023 while playing for Hiroshima, but surprisingly has not won any individual titles. He has also been sidelined many times due to injuries, and last season he was leading the league in batting average until the end of the season, but was sidelined by injury at the very end and did not reach the required number of plate appearances. Before his injury, he was batting .310 and in a position to challenge for the batting hitter, so it was a painful injury. This season, we can expect him to win the batting hitter.
Osuna (Yakult), who is in his sixth year in Japan this season, also won the Best Nine award in 2022, but has not won any individual batting titles. Except for his rookie year in 2021, Osuna has been in the top 10 in the league in RBI. Last season, he recorded 67 RBI, ranking 5th in the league. With Munetaka Murakami (White Sox) challenging the major leagues this season, it will be interesting to see if Osuna can rack up RBI as a point-getter and win RBI title.
Other fielder Ryoya Kurihara (Softbank Hawks), Masayuki Kuwahara (Seibu Lions), and Shogo Sakakura (Hiroshima), and pitcher Naoyuki Uwasawa (Softbank Hawks), Kosei Takahashi (Seibu Lions), and Ryohei Kuribayashi (Hiroshima).
