Blue Jays insider has emphatic response to Kazuma Okamoto proving his critics wrong

A tip of the cap to everyone who said Kazuma Okamoto is going to struggle in the major leagues. We're less than a full week into the 2026 MLB season, but so far, the Nippon Professional Baseball veteran is playing like a MLB veteran in his first season with the Toronto Blue Jays.

He's been tearing the cover off the ball and Blue Jays beat reporter Keegan Matheson put it best with a tweet that can be seen here (*contains profanity). Matheson said on X, "One of the big questions around Kazuma Okamoto coming to MLB was how he'd handle velocity. He's hitting the s*** out of it."

Okamoto has been tearing the cover off the ball in his first week in the majors

It shouldn't come as a complete surprise to anyone who has followed Okamoto's career with the Yomiuri Giants. He was one of the league's premier sluggers for a decade, topping 30 or more home runs six times between 2018 and 2023. But he wasn't just a power guy, he also slashed .274/.355/.501 with an OPS of .856.

But the knock against Okamoto, who signed a four-year $60 million deal with Toronto in January, was that the velocity is at a different level in North America. There are way more guys that throw hard and consistently hard and that Okamoto would have to really take time to adjust to that kind of speed night after night. Right now, it's the pitchers who are trying to make an adjustment as Okamoto has barreled 22.2% of the balls he has hit, which puts him in the 91st percentile.

He's got two home runs. One that went 107.7 mph off the bat to straight away center field. The other went 110.4 mph to the opposite field. He's put nine balls in play and on his four singles, he's hit the ball 91.1, 91.9, 98.5 and 105.8 mph. He's also smashed a line drive to left that came off the bat at 102.4 mph but was caught by outfielder Jake McCarthy of the Colorado Rockies.

The one issue right now may be his strike out to walk ratio. He's K'd nine times compared to three walks. That's the most strikeouts on the team so far, and tied for the 13th most in the league. But that just might be the give and take we get with Okamoto who's slash line remains at .300/.391/.600 with an OPS of .991. Everything he's doing so far has been above league average. His average exit velocity of 93.1 mph is higher than the league average of 88.3 mph and his hard hit percentage of 45.5% eclipses the league average of 39.4%.

It's been a fantastic start for Okamoto with the Blue Jays. He's done his job at the plate, and he hasn't been too shabby with the glove either, making the routine plays look easy and making some tough plays look just as nonchalant as well, like this diving stop on a 105 mph grounder.

When it comes to Okamoto, the critics are starting to turn into crickets.