{"id":388678,"date":"2026-01-05T01:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T01:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/388678\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T01:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T01:22:08","slug":"blue-jays-officially-sign-japanese-infielder-kazuma-okamoto-to-four-year-us60m-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/388678\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays officially sign Japanese infielder Kazuma Okamoto to four-year, US$60M deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 The Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> officially signed Japanese infielder Kazuma Okamoto to a four-year, US$60-million contract Sunday.<\/p>\n

Okamoto, whose deal with the Blue Jays was widely reported Saturday, is a six-time all-star in Japan\u2019s Nippon Professional Baseball league.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old third baseman and first baseman hit .327 with 15 homers and 49 RBIs in 69 games last season for the Yomiuri Giants. He missed over half the season with an elbow injury.<\/p>\n

Under MLB\u2019s posting agreement with NPB, the Blue Jays owe the Giants a posting fee of $10,875,000.<\/p>\n

Okamoto will get a $5 million signing bonus, a $7 million salary this year and $16 million in each of the following three seasons.<\/p>\n

With five-time All-Star Vladimir Guerrero Jr.<\/a> at first, Okamoto presumably would play mostly at third. Addison Barger<\/a> had 67 starts there last year, Ernie Clement<\/a> 66, Will Wagner<\/a> 22, Isiah Kiner-Falefa<\/a> six and Buddy Kennedy<\/a> one.<\/p>\n

Barger also plays right field, and the addition of Okamoto could mean Andr\u00e9s Gim\u00e9nez will move from second to shortstop if free agent Bo Bichette<\/a> doesn\u2019t re-sign. Clement and Davis Scheider could share time at second.<\/p>\n

In a corresponding move, the Blue Jays designated right-handed pitcher Paxton Schultz<\/a> for assignment.<\/p>\n

— With files from The Associated Press<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 4, 2026. <\/p>\n

The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 The Toronto Blue Jays officially signed Japanese infielder Kazuma Okamoto to a four-year, US$60-million contract Sunday.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-388678","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}