Next to Cody Ponce, Kazuma Okamoto was the biggest wild card for the Toronto Blue Jays heading into the 2026 season. His four-year, $60 million contract was a lot of cheddar for a player who had never taken an at-bat against Major League pitching before.

Okamoto came with a glowing resume from Japan, as a six-time All-Star in the NPB, a league leader in home runs and RBIs on three occasions, and three Mitsui Gold Glove Awards to his name. But how would those Japan Central League stats translate to the big leagues?

The Blue Jays have made forays into Asian countries by signing Japanese players before, but those were predominantly pitchers. Other than Munenori Kawasaki from 2013 to 2015 and Nori Aoki, who came to the Blue Jays via trade in 2017, the Blue Jays haven’t had any Japanese position players on their roster.

At close to the one-third mark of the season, Okamoto hasn’t seemed to miss a beat during year one with the Blue Jays. He leads the team with 11 home runs and 29 RBIs, and his .410 slugging percentage ranks fourth on the team.

In a bit of a weird anomaly, Okamoto’s .195 Isolated Power leads all Blue Jays hitters. More than any other hitter in the lineup, Okamoto is delivering extra-base power, with 40% of all his hits this season being extra-base hits. For that reason alone, it’s easy to see why he’s commanding either the cleanup or fifth spot in the lineup.

The exit velocity and hard-hit rate metrics look great for Okamoto. He’s squaring up the ball well and tattooing it when he gets a hold of one. I think that’s one of the reasons his power looks so effortless; he doesn’t have a ferocious swing, but it’s an efficient swing.

Defensively, Okamoto has adjusted to playing the hot corner full-time. He’s no Matt Chapman or Max Muncy at third base, but Okamoto has handled the position well during the first third of the season. He’s +2 on Defensive Runs Saved, which puts him around league average for third basemen.

The one area where Okamoto seems to struggle is his plate discipline. During his 11 seasons in the NPB, Okamoto posted a .355 on-base percentage, while his .301 OBP with the Blue Jays is among the bottom third of the league.

Learning a whole new league of pitchers can’t be easy, which is why his 31.9% strikeout rate is so incredibly high. Curveballs, cutters, and sinkers are giving Okamoto a lot of trouble early on, but he’s handling four-seam fastballs and changeups with ease.

Okamoto isn’t chasing pitchers’ pitches outside the strike zone, and yet, he’s whiffing 33.2% of the time, which puts him in the ninth percentile of the league. The top-third of the strike zone is where Okamoto struggles to make contact, but the bottom-third of the zone is where he does his most damage.

Picking up those pitches with movement — like sliders, curveballs, and sweepers — can be the biggest adjustment to make for international hitters coming from other leagues over to Major League Baseball. He’s learning on the fly, so it will be interesting to see how the additional intel helps frame Okamoto’s plate discipline for the rest of the campaign.

The danger in trying to forecast things from here on out is that it can’t yet be declared whether Okamoto has found his footing as a hitter or whether he’s still a work in progress. It might take until year four of this contract to determine whether he has the skills to stick in MLB.

At times this year, he’s looked like the best hitter on the Blue Jays, with his effortless power and a keen eye for not chasing pitches outside the zone. Other times, he’s been completely outmatched at the plate by the best pitchers in the world.

It’s difficult to make any conclusions from only 53 games into a hitter’s pro career in MLB, but Okamoto certainly hasn’t been a liability for the Blue Jays. He plays third base well, the baserunning could use some work, and he would do well to cut down that strikeout rate. Easier said than done, but that’s the key for him to take his game to the next level.

With it being year one of his $60 million deal and Okamoto only making $8.25 million in 2026, the bar is fairly low for him to deliver value on this contract in the short term. But once his yearly hit jumps to $17.25 million next year and beyond, that’s when his play will be put further under the microscope.

For now, Okamoto is delivering about what the Blue Jays would expect.

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