{"id":475298,"date":"2026-02-14T22:19:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T22:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/475298\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T22:19:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T22:19:08","slug":"blue-jays-kazuma-okamoto-already-showing-great-sense-of-humor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/475298\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays’ Kazuma Okamoto already showing great sense of humor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kazuma Okamoto is secure in being himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The new Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> third baseman from Japan hasn’t gotten to play an MLB game yet. But he’s already shown a fun sense of humor.<\/p>\n

At his press conference on Saturday, Okamoto delivered a fun line through an interpreter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very serious \u2026 and very manly,\u201d Okamoto said through his interpreter before laughing, according to MLB.com<\/a>. \u201cI think I can say that about myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0How Jose Ramirez is on pace to become Cleveland’s Derek Jeter<\/a><\/p>\n

Blue Jays fans would love it if Okamoto turns out to be the man.<\/p>\n

He essentially works out to be their replacement for Bo Bichette.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bichette cost the Mets three years and $126 million. Okamoto’s contract in Toronto is four years and $60 million.<\/p>\n

So if he hits well, he works out to be a bargain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If he doesn’t, though, the humor might not be quite as funny.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Luis Arraez is MLB’s perfect misfit in 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Okamoto has a record of hitting very well in Japan, a contact hitter with solid court vision and sturdy power, too.<\/p>\n

He’s not thought to be an incredible third baseman, but that’s where he’ll play, with Andres Gimenez at shortstop and Ernie Clement at second base.<\/p>\n

Okamoto also won’t be in camp long before he leaves to represent Japan in the World Baseball Classic. So he’s got to make a quick impression.<\/p>\n

By Opening Day, Blue Jays fans will hope Okamoto can make them smile with his play as well as his jokes.<\/p>\n

More MLB news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kazuma Okamoto is secure in being himself.\u00a0 The new Toronto Blue Jays third baseman from Japan hasn’t gotten…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-475298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475298","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=475298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}