Yoshihiro Maru (丸 佳浩, Maru Yoshihiro, born April 11, 1989 in Katsuura, Chiba, Japan) is a Japanese professional baseball outfielder for the Yomiuri Giants of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).
[1] He missed time his first year in the minors with injuries to his elbow and toe and a norovirus.
He became Hiroshima's starting center fielder that year, unseating Soichiro Amaya and Masato Akamatsu.
In 2012, he batted .247/.353/.353 with 14 steals in 20 tries, splitting CF with Amaya and Akamatsu and backing up Jun Hirose in RF.
He made the CL leaders in runs (tying Chonost for second behind Wladimir Balentien), doubles (25, 9th), triples (5, 1st), steals (1st, 5 over Hayato Sakamoto), caught stealing (1st, 6 more than anyone else), walks (4th, between Shinnosuke Abe and Kazuhiro Wada), strikeouts (103, 6th, between Balentien and Chono) and OBP (6th, between Murata and Wada).
He won his second Gold Glove and made the Best Nine as one of the CL's top three flyhawks (alongside Yuhei Takai and Matt Murton).
Maru hit .291/.389/.481 with 30 doubles, 8 triples, 20 homers, 23 steals in 32 tries, 98 runs, 90 RBI and 84 walks in 2016.
Maru was again dominant in 2018 despite missing time with a hamstring injury: .306/.468/.627, 39 HR, 130 BB, 109 R, 97 RBI, .996 fielding percentage.
[citation needed] On December 11, 2018, Maru signed a 5-year, 2.55 billion yen deal with the Yomiuri Giants.
He also was with Japan for the 2015 Global Baseball Match against Team Europe, going 0 for 3 with a walk, playing left when Sho Nakata manned first.