By The Canadian Press

Kazuma Okamoto, Jesus Sanchez arrive at Toronto Blue Jays spring training camp

Feb 14, 2026 | 10:12 AM

DUNEDIN — If there were any first-day jitters for Kazuma Okamoto and Jesus Sanchez, it didn’t show.

Okamoto and Sanchez arrived at the Toronto Blue Jays’ spring training camp on Saturday morning, doing drills with their new teammates and exploring the sprawling compound. Okamoto was even cracking jokes with reporters when asked about what kind of person he is off the field.

“I’m very serious and very manly,” said Okamoto as Japanese media listening to the interview started chuckling before translator Yusuke Oshima could make the tongue-in-cheek joke in English. “I think I can say that by myself.”

Okamoto, who plays third base and right field, signed a four-year US$60-million deal with Toronto on Jan. 4 after spending his entire 11-year career with the Yomiuri Giants of Nippon Professional Baseball.

He couldn’t join the Blue Jays when their camp opened on Wednesday due to issues with his work visa.

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“Obviously, I just got here, so getting to know everybody all the players, coaches, staff, finding my way around and stuff,” said Okamoto after taking fielding practice with Toronto’s infielders. “It’s been a lot so far but everything is so far, so good.”

One of the first things Okamoto did on Saturday was embrace Blue Jays manager John Schneider. Okamoto had told reporters at his introductory news conference in January that he thinks Schneider looks scary, a concern he repeated directly to his new manager via video call.

“I was like, ‘man, I don’t know if that’s good or bad,’ but I gave him a big hug when I saw him, just because we had kind of joked about it a little bit before,” said Schneider. “I think he’s gonna figure out pretty quickly that I’m not that scary and that I like to have a lot of fun. I think he does too.

“Hopefully, he doesn’t think that I’m too scary. Hopefully I don’t have to yell at him, which I’m sure I won’t. But I’m just glad to finally have him here.”

Sanchez was acquired by Toronto in a trade with the Houston Astros for fellow outfielder Joey Loperfido on Friday. Sanchez couldn’t stop smiling when speaking with reporters.

“Very happy, very happy since the very first moment I have felt welcome,” said Sanchez through translator Hector Lebron. “I knew I was going to a very competitive organization, a competitive team. Very grateful for the opportunity to be here and I’ve been working hard for this kind of moment and I’m ready for it and looking forward to it.”

Both Okamoto and Sanchez are going to be called on to provide some power to the Blue Jays’ lineup this season.

Okamoto played his entire 11-year career NPB career with the Giants, leading the league in home runs three times. He’s a career .277 hitter with 248 home runs, 717 runs batted in and a .521 slugging percentage.

Sanchez, 28, hit .237 with 14 home runs and 48 RBIs in 134 games last season between Miami and Houston. The left-handed hitter has hit 73 home runs in 580 games over six major-league seasons.

“We want these guys to hit the ball hard,” said Schneider. “That was the first message we gave Sanch. Okamoto has been doing that for his entire career, so that’s what we want him to do.

“There’s going to be some risk reward, I think, with both of them.”

One wrinkle for Schneider is that Okamoto will be playing for Japan at the World Baseball Classic and is expected to leave Toronto’s camp to join his national team before the end of February.

“With the WBC, you have a little bit of a countdown for that, making sure that he’s comfortable here, with his teammates, with his work, with all that stuff,” said Schneider, adding that Okamoto will likely start in Toronto’s first exhibition game on Feb. 21. “That’s kind of down to asking him every day ‘Hey, how are you feeling physically?’

“He’s been doing everything he needs to do back home and we’ll just kind of keep tabs on him as he goes.”

Toronto agreed to terms with right-handed pitcher Jesse Hahn earlier Saturday, signing the 36-year-old reliever to a minor-league contract with an invite to the major-league camp.

Hahn was selected by the Tampa Bay Rays in the sixth round of the 2010 First-Year Player Draft, making his MLB debut with the San Diego Padres in 2014. Hahn has made 85 appearances (50 starts) between the Padres, Athletics, Kansas City Royals, and Seattle Mariners, recording a 4.24 earned-run average in 316 1/3 innings.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 14, 2026.

John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press