"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."
Kazuma Okamoto, 29, agreed to a free agent contract with the Toronto Blue Jays. Okamoto has hit a league-best 247 home runs since his NPB debut in 2018 and had reached 27-plus homers each season entering 2025. An elbow injury limited him to 15 homers while costing roughly half of the last season. Okamoto's batting average rose to .280 and .327 while his strikeout rate fell to 16% and 11% in recent seasons. His game relies on frequent lift-and-pull power rather than elite exit velocities. Defensive limitations suggest an eventual primary first-base role; he has 474 career games at first. The Blue Jays must pay a posting fee to his NPB club under the standard MLB posting percentages.
Read at ESPN.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]