Sources: Japanese 3B Kazuma Okamoto, Blue Jays agree on deal
Japanese third baseman Kazuma Okamoto and the Toronto Blue Jays are in agreement on a free agent contract, sources tell ESPN.
Okamoto, 29, has hit a league-best 247 home runs — one more than Munetaka Murakami, who signed with the Chicago White Sox in December — since entering Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball in 2018.
Entering 2025, Okamoto had hit 27 or more homers every season of his career, all played for the Yomiuri Giants, but he only tallied 15 last season due to missing roughly half of the season with an elbow injury from a collision at first base.
Okamoto is more than three years older than Murakami and doesn’t have the peaks in homer total or high-end exit velocities, but he offers a much higher floor as a player. While Okamoto’s homer totals dropped to 27 (in 2024) and 15 (in 2025) in his last two seasons, his batting average spiked to .280 and .327 along with his strikeout rate dropping to 16%, then 11% in 2025.
Okamoto’s skills are concentrated more into the frequency with which he gets to his power — regularly lifting and pulling the ball in games — rather than those hitters with massive power, though Okamoto’s raw power grades are still plus when compared to big league hitters.
Okamoto, like Murakami, has limited long-term defensive value and is seen as an eventual primary first baseman that has mostly played third base in Japan, but Okamoto has played a lot of first base (474 games in his career), so his transition should be easier. The combination of Okamoto’s long track record and wide base of skills made him attractive to a number of teams looking for a less expensive alternative to Pete Alonso on the free agent market.
Okamoto’s club in NPB is entitled to a posting fee to be paid by the Blue Jays. MLB teams that sign players through posting must pay a fee to the Asian team from which the player transfers: 20% for the first $25 million, 17.5% for the next $25 million and an additional 15% on every dollar above $50 million.
In 11 NPB seasons, Okamoto, a six-time All-Star, has a 2.77 batting average with 248 homers and 717 RBIs. He also played for Team Japan in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, hitting the go-ahead home run in the gold medal game against the United States. He had seven RBIs in 18 at-bats during the WBC.
ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel contributed to this report.
