Kenya Wakatsuki

Kenya Wakatsuki (若月 健矢)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 187 lbs.

• High School Hanasaki Tokuei High School

• Born October 4, 1995 in Kazo, Saitama Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Kenya Wakatsuki has caught in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Wakatsuki was drafted by the Orix Buffaloes in the third round of the 2013 NPB draft, and he spent almost his first two seasons in the NPB Farm Leagues, only playing 5 games with the big club. He also represented Japan in the 2013 U-18 Baseball World Cup, going 3 for 7 with 3 RBI for the Silver Medalists; Tomoya Mori was the starting backstop.

In the 2014 U-21 Baseball World Cup, he hit .353/.353/.353 with error-free defense as the main catcher for the second-place Japanese team. Wakatsuki shared the starting catcher spot with Hikaru Ito in 2016, and he played 85 games with a .227/.259/.284 batting line. He and Ito helped Orix become the first team in NPB history that didn't have any passed balls in a season.

The Saitama native slumped to .202/.245/.271 and led the league in errors as a catcher in 2017. He represented Japan in the 2017 Asia Professional Baseball Championship and won the Gold. Wakatsuki bounced back in 2018 with a .245/.269/.305 clip but he struggled again at the plate as his batting line was .178/.241/.218 in 138 games 2019. Despite his poor batting, he was still a productive catcher because he led the league in CS% with .371 and he complete a league-leading 25 sacrifice bunts. He was the first catcher to led the league in CS% in Orix Buffaloes history (Satoshi Nakajima had done it for the Orix BlueWave in 1992, before the BlueWave merged with the Kintetsu Buffaloes). He had a .240/.290/.349 batting line in 2020.

When Torai Fushimi and Yuma Tongu shined in 2021, Wakatsuki only played 68 games with a .214/.290/.376. He and Yoshinobu Yamamoto became a regular battery, and they won the Most Valuable Battery award. He was 3-for-6 in the 2021 Nippon Series, but the Buffaloes lost to the Yakult Swallows in 6 games. Wakatsuki improved to .281/.326/.392 in 2022, but he still only played 68 games due to covid-19. He won the Most Valuable Battery Award with Yamamoto again. In the 2022 Nippon Series, he was 2-for-8, with a RBI double against Hikaru Yamashita in Game 5, and won his first Nippon Series title as the Buffaloes beat the Swallows in 7 games.

Wakatsuki extended his solid performance in 2023, and he was selected as the starting catcher for the Pacific League in the 2023 NPB All-Star Game. He was 0-for-4 in 2 games, but drove in two runs, by a sacrifice fly and a grounder in Game 2. He ended up hitting .255/.295/.374 with a career-high 6 homers, and won the Most Valuable Battery award for the third consecutive year with Yamamoto. He was the second player to win that award with the same pitcher for three consecutive years, following Tsutomu Ito and Fumiya Nishiguchi. He won his first NPB Gold Glove Award as the top defensive catcher in the Pacific League, and his .997 fielding percentage was also the highest among PL catchers. Wakatsuki was 2-for-11 in the 2023 Nippon Series, with a RBI single against Shoki Murakami in Game 6, but the Buffaloes still lost to the Hanshin Tigers in 7 games.