Ryō Yoshimoto

is a Japanese former Nippon Professional Baseball infielder, and current second squad hitting coach for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).

Early baseball career Yoshimoto went on to Kyushu Gakuin High School, where he participated in the 80th Japanese High School Baseball Championship in the summer of his junior year with Hisashi Takayama, a year below him.

Professional career Active player era On November 20, 1998, Yoshimoto was drafted by the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks in the 1998 Nippon Professional Baseball draft.

He played only 95 games in his 10 seasons with the Hawks. And he became a free agent in the offseason of 2008 and moved to the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in the 2009 season.

He played 54 games in three seasons with the Swallows but decided to retire as a free agent after the 2011 season.

Yoshimoto had a total of 149 games played as an active player with a .227 batting average, 54 hits, one home run, and 34 RBI.

On December 2, 2023, he was transferred to the second squad hitting coach.