Japanese baseball superstar Kazuma Okamoto has agreed a free-agent contract with the Toronto Blue Jays to finally end speculation over his MLB landing spot.
Okamoto, 29, has a league-best 247 home runs since he entered Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball in 2018, and multiple MLB teams had negotiated with him.
But Okamoto has turned down the likes of the Padres, Angels, Pirates and Red Sox to join Toronto for his first tilt at the World Series.
Before this season, Okamoto had 27 or more home runs in each of his seasons in Japan, but he missed half of the last campaign due to an elbow injury and only recorded 15.
He is also a six-time All-Star and played for Japan in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, where he hit the go-ahead home run in the gold medal match against the USA.
No details have yet been revealed about the contract he will sign, but his Japanese team – Yomiuri Giants – will receive a large posting fee from the Blue Jays.
MLB teams that sign players through posting must pay a 20% fee for the first $25 million, 17.5% for the next $25 million and an additional 15% on every dollar above $50 million.
Okamoto’s decision comes just days after pitching superstar Tatsuya Imai also chose his landing spot in America, signing a $63m contract with the Houston Astros.
Imai was recently asked by legendary Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka about joining the two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers, to which he sounded more interested in beating countrymen Shohei Ohtani, Roki Sasaski and Yamamoto.
‘Of course, I’d enjoy playing alongside Ohtani, Yamamoto, and Sasaki,’ Imai told Matsuzaka on the show, Hodo Station, according to MLB.com’s translation.
‘But winning against a team like that and becoming a world champion would be the most valuable thing in my life. If anything, I’d rather take them down.’
