Kaito Kozono

Kaito Kozono (小園 海斗)

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 185 lbs.

• High School Hotoku Gakuen High School

• Born June 7, 2000 in Takarazuka, Hyogo Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Kaito Kozono has played in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Kozono represented Japan in the 2017 U-18 Baseball World Cup. He had three-hit games against Mexico, Cuba, South Africa and Australia and was 1-for-2 with a walk, steal and run in their Bronze Medal Game win over host Canada. He finished at .378/.395/.378 but fielded .842 with six errors in nine games. Only César Prieto had more hits in the event but only Daniel Monti had more errors. The Orix Buffaloes, Yokohama BayStars, Fukuoka Softbank Hawks and Hiroshima Toyo Carp all selected him in the first round of the 2018 NPB draft, and the Carp won the lottery to his rights. Kozono was soon promoted to the big club, and he became the first rookie to collect 4 hits in a game since Hideki Matsui did it in 1993. He recorded a .213/.241/.324 batting line with 4 homers in his rookie year. However, Kozono struggled at ni-gun in 2020, so he only played 3 games with the big club.

The Hyogo native broke out in 2021, hitting .298/.320/.399 with 5 homers. Kozono was 8th in batting (between Toshiro Miyazaki and Yohei Oshima) and 2nd in triples in the Central League (1 behind Yasutaka Shiomi). He was selected into the 2022 NPB All-Star Games, but he went 0-for-4. Kozono ended up hitting .266/.300/.362 with 7 homers in this season. When Masaya Yano shined in 2023, Kozono needed to share the shortstop spot with him, so he only played 80 games with a .286/.315/.434 batting line. He drew three walks with a hit against the Yokohama BayStars in the first stage of the 2023 CLCS, and he extended his good performance in the final stage versus the Hanshin Tigers. He was 2-for-3 with a triple against Shoki Murakami, and collected two hits with the only RBI of the Carp against Masashi Ito in Game 2. He was 2-for-5 in Game 3, but couldn't stop the Tigers from sweeping the Carp.