Kazuya Ojima

Kazuya Ojima (小島 和哉)

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 5' 9", Weight 178 lbs.

• School Waseda University
• High School Urawa Gakuin High School

• Born July 7, 1996 in Konosu, Saitama Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Kazuya Ojima has played in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Ojima represented Japan in the 2014 BFA U-18 Baseball Championshp, 2016 Haarlem Baseball Week and 2018 Haarlem Baseball Week. The Chiba Lotte Marines selected him in the 3rd round of the 2018 NPB draft, and he went 3-5 with a 4.31 ERA in his first season. He improved to 7-8 with a 3.73 ERA in 2020, and he was 10-4 with 2 shutouts and a 3.76 ERA in 2021. Ojima was 2nd in the Pacific League in shutouts (2 behind Yoshinobu Yamamoto) and 6th in wins (tied with Hiromi Itoh, Kodai Senga, Wataru Matsumoto and Ryota Takinaka). He was 3-11 with a 3.14 ERA in 2022, and he ranked 2nd in losses (1 behind Masahiro Tanaka).

The Saitama native went 10-6 with a 3.47 ERA in 2023, and he led the league with 25 starts. He was 9th in ERA, 4th in innings (between Takayuki Kato and Kona Takahashi) and 4th in wins (tied with Takahashi, Hiroya Miyagi, Atsuki Taneichi, Tatsuya Imai and Kohei Arihara). In the 2023 PLCS first stage, he completed 6 1/3 shutout innings in Game 3 to eliminate the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks. Ojima was still a reliable starter in 2024, and he had a 12-10 record with a 3.58 ERA. He led the league with 5 complete games, ranking 7th in innings (between Kato and Livan Moinelo), 9th in strikeouts (between Arihara and Roki Sasaki) and 3rd in wins (2 behind Arihara and Itoh). In the 2024 PLCS first stage, Ojima pitched 6 1/3 innings with only a run allowed, but the Marines lost to the Nippon-Ham Fighters due to Daiki Asama's walk-off hit.

Ojima's repertoire includes a fastball (peak 93.8 mph), curveball, cutter, changeup and slider.