{"id":588880,"date":"2026-02-23T19:43:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T19:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/588880\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T19:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T19:43:11","slug":"toronto-blue-jays-third-baseman-kazuma-okamoto-launches-first-grapefruit-league-home-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/588880\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Kazuma Okamoto launches first Grapefruit League home run"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Kazuma Okamoto hit his first home run as a member of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/mlb\/team-page\/toronto-blue-jays\/238\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/mlb\/team-page\/toronto-blue-jays\/238\" target=\"_blank\">Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> on Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The Japanese third baseman crushed a two-run shot to dead centre off of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/mlb\/player\/clay-holmes\/598167\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/mlb\/player\/clay-holmes\/598167\" target=\"_blank\">Clay Holmes<\/a> during a Grapefruit League matinee against the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/mlb\/team-page\/new-york-mets\/245\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/mlb\/team-page\/new-york-mets\/245\" target=\"_blank\">New York Mets<\/a> in Dunedin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The no-doubter traveled 431 feet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">A native of Gojo, Okamoto signed a four-year, $60 million deal with the Blue Jays last month after 11 seasons with the Yomiuri Giants of the NPB. Okamoto was a six-time All-Star in the NPB and led the Central League in home runs on three occasions. He totalled 248 home runs in 1,074.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Okamoto will join Team Japan next month as it looks to retain its World Baseball Classic crown.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The Blue Jays open their 2026 season on Mar. 26 against the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/mlb\/team-page\/athletics\/235\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/mlb\/team-page\/athletics\/235\" target=\"_blank\">Athletics<\/a> at Rogers Centre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kazuma Okamoto hit his first home run as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2378],"tags":[30173,5,377,2554,4,282,70,46737,2553],"class_list":{"0":"post-588880","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-blue-jays","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-blue-jays","11":"tag-bluejays","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-toronto","14":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","15":"tag-toronto-blue-jays-sports-baseball-team-team-statscom-238","16":"tag-torontobluejays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116121659237601721","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}