Japanese third baseman Kazuma Okamoto has signed a four-year, $60 million contract with the Toronto Blue Jays, the team announced Sunday.
The deal includes a $5 million signing bonus, and Okamoto will receive a salary of $7 million this year and $16 million in each of the next three seasons.
The 29-year-old Okamoto has hit a league-best 248 home runs — one more than Munetaka Murakami, who signed with the Chicago White Sox in December — since entering Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball with the Yomiuri Giants in 2015.
Entering 2025, Okamoto had hit 27 or more homers in every season since 2018, but he managed only 15 last season after missing nearly half the season due to an elbow injury sustained from a collision at first base.
Okamoto is more than three years older than Murakami and doesn’t have the peak homer total or high-end exit velocity, but he offers a very high floor as a player. While Okamoto’s homer totals dropped to 27 in 2024 and 15 in 2025, his batting averages increased to .280 and .327, with his strikeout rate dropping to 16% in 2025 and then 11%.
Okamoto’s skill is more focused on the frequency with which he gets his power – regularly lifting and pulling the ball into play – rather than as a heavy power hitter, although Okamoto’s raw power grades are still a plus compared to big league hitters.
Like Murakami, Okamoto has limited long-term defensive value and is ultimately viewed as a primary first baseman. He 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 easy. The combination of Okamoto’s long track record and broad base of skills made him attractive to many teams looking for a less expensive alternative to Pete Alonso in the free agent market.
According to the Associated Press, the Blue Jays will have to pay the Giants a posting fee of $10,875,000 for Okamoto. MLB teams signing players via posting must pay a fee to the Asian team to 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.
Under the posting agreement between Major League Baseball and Nippon Professional Baseball, all deals must be finalized by 5 p.m. ET Sunday.
In 11 NPB seasons, six-time All-Star Okamoto has a batting average of .277 with 248 homers and 717 RBIs. He also played for Team Japan in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, hitting a go-ahead home run in the gold medal game against the United States. He had seven RBI in 18 at-bats during his WBC career.
ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel and the Associated Press contributed to this report.