Yudai Fujioka

Yudai Fujioka (藤岡 裕大)

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 170 lb.

• School Asia University
• High School Okayama University of Science High School

• Born August 8, 1993 in Okayama, Okayama Japan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Yudai Fujioka has played in Nippon Pro Baseball and for the Japanese national team.

Fujioka hit .296 in college and played in the 2015 summer Universiade, when Japan won Gold. After college, he played for Toyota in the industrial leagues. In the 2017 Asian Championship, he starred for Japan, hitting .400/.471/.467 with five runs in five games while fielding .947. In the Gold Medal Game, he hit 3rd and played short for Japan, going 2 for 4 with a run while handling one putout and six assists in a victory over Taiwan. He was named the tournament's ALl-Star shortstop and Outstanding Defensive Player. The Chiba Lotte Marines took him in the second round of the 2017 NPB draft, after taking fellow infielder Hisanori Yasuda in round one.

The Okayama native made his NPB debut on Opening Day at short, hitting 2nd. He did just fine, going 3 for 6 against the Rakuten Golden Eagles, getting his first NPB hit off Takahiro Norimoto. His first homer came a couple weeks later against Kenichi Nakata. He ended up hitting .230/.294/.305 with 5 triples and a league-leading 26 sacrifice bunts, and he tied Yuki Yanagita and Ginji Akaminai for 7th in triples in the Pacific League. He won 17 of 258 points in the Rookie of the Year voting, and he ranked 4th behind winner Kazuki Tanaka's 112 votes, future MLB All-Star Yoshinobu Yamamoto's 70 votes and Ren Kajiya's 45 votes.

Fujioka suffered from a right foot injury in 2019 , and he only played 81 games with a .264/.306/.352 batting line. He then recorded a .229/.309/.315 batting line and fielded .986 in 2020, and he played 137 games while hitting .255/.320/.338 in 2021. Fujioka fractured his ribs in 2022 , so he only hit .176/.250/.206 in 28 games. He had a .277/.389/.352 batting line in 2023, and he hit a clutch game-tying 3-run home run against Yuki Tsumori in the bottom of the 10th inning of the win-or-go-home 2023 PLCS first stage Game 3. Fujikoka only had one homer in the regular season, and that homer was called "the miracle of Makuhari". The Marines won the game thanks to Hisanori Yasuda's walk-off single, but they failed to make it to the 2023 Nippon Series as the Orix Buffaloes eliminated them. Fujioka hit .256/.354/.353 in 2024 while moving to second (where he fielded .988), and his batting line was .256/.341/.353 in 2025.