Kazuma Okamoto’s first MLB home run shows exactly how he can be a Blue Jays star originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Kazuma Okamoto’s first MLB home run was a special moment simply because of what it was.
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It was also special, though, because of what it represents for the future of the Toronto Blue Jays.
Simply put, it revealed that Okamoto genuinely should have staying power in Major League Baseball.
He’s on a four-year, $60 million contract with Toronto to come over from NPB in Japan, and there’s always a little bit of uncertainty about how such a move might work.
Okamoto showed in just one swing that it’s going to work out great.
This was the home run on Sunday for Okamoto:
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The key: opposite field power.
Good hitters don’t luck into crushed home runs the other way. They deliver those because their mechanics and execution are just right.
Sure, Okamoto wasn’t facing the best pitcher ever in a middling Athletics righty on Sunday, but he did what he was supposed to do on a pitch out over the plate and drove it a long way the other way.
He has that in his repertoire, which points to an MLB star.
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