Toshihiko Kuramoto

Toshihiko Kuramoto (倉本 寿彦)

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 180 lb.

• School Soka University
• High School Yokohama High School

• Born January 7, 1991 in Chigasaki, Kanagawa Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Toshihiko Kuramoto played for the Japanese national team and has been a regular for a couple seasons in Nippon Pro Baseball.

Undrafted out of college, he went to play in the industrial leagues. In the 2014 Asian Games, he hit .250/.316/.438 with 4 runs, 6 RBI and a homer in five games for Japan; he fielded .875 as the main shortstop for the Bronze Medal winners. He tied Sung-bum Na, Toshiyuki Hayashi and Akira Matsumoto for 2nd in the event in RBI, one behind Jung-ho Kang. The Yokohama BayStars took him in the 3rd round of the 2014 NPB draft.

Kuramoto was the first rookie to start on Opening Day for the franchise since Yoshio Noguchi in 1971. He got his first hit that day, off Tomoyuki Sugano, and his first homer came in May against Ryoma Matsuda. He hit only .208/.244/.249 in 102 games for the big club in 2015 and spent some time in the minors. He fielded .980 as Yokohama's most-used shortstop.

He fielded .989 in 2016 while improving his hitting to .294/.323/.343. He rapped 157 hits, 8th in the Central League, between Shuichi Murata and Seiya Suzuki. He missed the top 10 in average by .001 behind Tomotaka Sakaguchi. His fielding fell to .979 in 2017 but he led CL shortstops with 233 putouts. He batted .262/.292/.331 with 27 doubles, usually hitting 9th, behind the pitcher. He missed the top 10 in doubles by one. Ultimate Zone Rating had him at -17 defensive runs, though, not good for someone who had typical offense for a shortstop. He was a bright spot for the BayStars in the 2017 Japan Series at .333/.343/.333; only Toshiro Miyazaki had more hits for the team than his 7.

Kuramoto slipped from there. He hit .232/.251/.276 in 85 games in 2018, splitting second with Tatsuhiro Shibata as Yamato Maeda took over at short. In 2019, he batted .121/.171/.152 in 35 plate appearances for the big club, spending most of the year in the minors (.255/.320/.362 in 57 G). He was third-string at short behind Maeda and Shibata, while Neftali Soto and Shibata split second.