Blue Jays Notes: Okamoto Outshining Bichette, Turnaround Year for Defensive Stud
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The Toronto Blue Jays had quite an offseason that was mostly highlighted by monumental moves that bolstered their pitching staff with guys like Dylan Cease and Tyler Rogers joining the organization.
However, there was plenty of drama surrounding the position players, specifically the infield and their homegrown hero, Bo Bichette. Bichette's professional career started in Toronto, and nobody wanted to see him go.
Unfortunately, away he went as he ended up signing a deal with the New York Mets after the Blue Jays brought in slugging third baseman Kazuma Okamoto. The consensus was that when that signing happened, Bichette was leaving.
Kazuma Okamoto sent this baseball to the moon 😮 pic.twitter.com/iK2af2GLel
— MLB (@MLB) April 24, 2026
In a perfect world, both would still be members of the organization, but the world is far from perfect, and at this point in the season, the Jays are incredibly fortunate to have Kaz's bat over Bichette's in the hitting lineup.
Okamoto has seemingly sparked some life into the hitting order, as defensive phenom Andrés Giménez has a pair of homers and five RBI in their last series alone. Giménez and Okamoto are providing slugging power to a team that is in desperate need.
2026 Okamoto vs. 2026 Bichette
It is never fun to do a side-by-side look at a couple of players who are both very talented when one is obviously struggling, but the season is six weeks in, and Bichette's issues with his new team can no longer be considered a slump.
Okamoto has played in one less game than Bichette, but his production is overshadowing Bichette's by a mile as he has 10 homers to his two, 27 RBI compared to 18, and 21 walks drawn to Bichette's 13.
To make matters worse for Bichette, his entire slash line is below .200, which brings his OPS to a measly .552, while Okamoto is slugging a near .460 with a .786 OPS.
Impressive Turnaround For Gimenez
The Jays' shortstop is likely never going to be the leadoff man for this stacked Silver Slugger lineup, but having him as a liability at the bottom of the order was a major issue last season in the worst year of his career.
That has not been the case this season as he is right at the top of the stat sheet amongst Toronto's hitters.
- 5 Home Runs: tied for 2nd
- 23 RBI: 2nd trailing Okamoto as the only two with 20+ RBI
- 6 Doubles- 4th
- .411 Slugging Percentage- 3rd
The biggest weakness in his game right now is simply getting on base. He doesn't draw a lot of walks, so his OPS is down, but the improvement he has shown from last season to now could be the difference maker for the Jays' 2026 outcome.
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Maddy Dickens resides in Loveland, Colorado. She grew up with two older brothers, where their lives revolved around sports. She earned a master's degree in business management from Tarleton State University while simultaneously playing basketball and competing in rodeo at the collegiate level. She successfully parlayed a reserve national championship into a professional rodeo career and now stays involved in upper-level athletics by writing for On SI on several different MLB teams' pages, along with some NCAA sites.