Diamondbacks Reportedly Meeting With International Star

The Diamondbacks will have a hefty group of competitors if they are serious about bringing in Okamoto. The Pirates, Blue Jays, Red Sox, Angels and Padres have all been linked to the Japanese star — much more definitively than the D-backs have.

That, of course, does not mean there's no hope for Arizona to land the slugger. In fact, the lack of reports linking the D-backs to Okamoto might even be an encouraging sign, considering how closely GM Mike Hazen and Arizona's front office have tended to hold information of that sort.

Arizona Diamondbacks Meeting with Kazuma Okamoto

Okamoto brings plenty of power from the right side of the plate and plays both first base and third base. Arizona could certainly use an everyday solution at first base, and could also use some pop in their post-2025-trade-deadline lineup.

"The longtime Yomiuri Giants star, who’d been their team captain prior to being posted, is one of the most consistent sluggers in Japan. He’s a career .277/.361/.522 hitter in NPB who has reached 30 home runs in all but two of his 11 seasons. That includes 2025, when injuries limited him to 69 games, and 2024, when he “only” hit 27 homers in 143 games," wrote MLB Trade Rumors' Steve Adams.

With that said, Okamoto isn't exactly a top-tier defender. That may present a sticking point to Hazen and the D-backs, who value infield defense at a premium, and went away from their power-focused infield in 2025 in favor of a more glove- and athleticism-forward group of younger players.

That doesn't mean Okamoto can't bring value to the Arizona, but it will, obviously, depend heavily on his cost. Surprisingly, fellow international star Munetaka Murakami (who's four years younger than Okamoto), signed for just two years and $34 million with the Chicago White Sox, after being projected a six-year deal worth well north of $100 million.

Okamoto, meanwhile, was projected to receive just a three-year deal worth $48 million by FanGraphs' crowdsourcing. That may or may not be anywhere close to accurate, but it's certainly not a deal that seems immediately out of Arizona's range.

A lot of the D-backs' offseason remains unresolved to this point. Whether or not Arizona will trade Ketel Marte, or sign Alex Bregman to a massive contract will undoubtedly have an impact on how they pursue (or don't pursue) other free agent targets like Okamoto.

Related Content: D-backs Insider Gives Update on Ketel Marte, Alex Bregman

For the time being, a marriage with the NPB star seems very unlikely, but surprise deals have been engineered by the D-backs in the recent past.

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