In short order, the Toronto Blue Jays have gone from a relative non-factor in the Japanese player market to one of the teams best positioned to land NPB talent.
Some of that has to do with the team’s overall spending increase in recent years, making them less likely to be priced out on any given player. Playing in a 2025 World Series that was followed extremely closely in Japan couldn’t have hurt. The club’s experience with NPB superstar Kazuma Okamoto also demonstrated that Toronto was a place Japanese players could come and succeed.
As the Blue Jays navigate free agency, they will have interest in the available players from Japan, and that interest is more likely to be more mutual than in previous years. There’s no guarantee another NPB star will head to Toronto this off-season, but it’s a realistic enough possibility that it’s worth having a basic understanding of the top talent available.
Teruaki Sato
Position: 3B/OF
Age: 27
2026 NPB stats: .306/.383/.609 in 614 PA for a 196 wRC+ with 39 HR and 8 SB.
Contract predictions:
Potential Blue Jays fit: It’s no surprise that the Blue Jays are reportedly engaged on Sato. The team is in dire need of offensive juice, didn’t have a strong left-handed power threat last season, and could easily fit Sato into an outfielder corner where the roster is low on reliable performers.
Born three days before Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Sato could be the left-handed middle-of-the-order presence the team has lacked since Vladdy emerged as an offensive difference maker in 2021. The 27-year-old has hit 15 more home runs than any other NPB hitter over the last two seasons (79), and his wRC+ during that time (189) ranks first in the league.
There isn’t a large cohort of Japanese power threats reaching the majors in recent years to put that in context. Still, Sato’s results across the Pacific in his last two campaigns compared favourably to Munetaka Murakami and Okamoto’s years before arriving in MLB — and fellow free agent Seiya Suzuki before he came over for the 2022 season.
The comp Sato most frequently receives is Murakami because of his high strikeout rate in Japan, which has landed between 25.4 per cent and 27.3 per cent in each of the last four seasons. Murakami survived an extremely high strikeout rate in the majors (35.4 per cent) thanks to his power production, and Sato may have to do the same. Working against him is a more chase-happy approach that doesn’t result in many walks to offset the Ks. His K/BB (0.38) ranked 72nd among 127 NPB hitters over the last two seasons. Murakami (0.56), Okamoto (0.76) and Suzuki (0.99) fared far better in their platform campaigns.
Signing Sato could mean adding an intimidating slugger in his prime for a half decade at a palatable price. It’s also possible a lack of contact and discipline prevents him from being an offensive needle mover while he fails to provide much value in the field. The error bars here are massive, but the ceiling is enticing.
Kaima Taira
Position: SP
Age: 27 (on Sunday)
2026 NPB stats: 8.69 K/9, 2.77 BB/9, 0.25 HR/9 in 146 IP over 22 starts with a 1.36 ERA.
Contract predictions:
Potential Blue Jays fit: With Kevin Gausman, Shane Bieber, and Max Scherzer no longer under contract, the Blue Jays are interested in adding starting pitching. Adding to the rotation is usually an off-season priority regardless of the context, and Taira’s youth and talent make him a player worth examining.
The highlights of the right-hander’s repertoire are a mid-90s fastball that he can dial up closer to triple digits at times. It works up in the zone, and his signature secondary pitch is a splitter that misses bats beneath it. His 2026 strikeout rate doesn’t jump off the page in an MLB context, but in Japan’s more contact-oriented league, his 8.69 K/9 was a respectable 10th-best among qualified starters. Both Taira’s stuff and command suggest he can get MLB hitters out, but there are a couple of factors that create skepticism.
Taira is short at five-foot-eight, and stout, with estimates of his weight sitting between 209 and 220 pounds. The Blue Jays employ Alejandro Kirk and saw Marcus Stroman thrive for years despite concerns about his height, so it’s possible the lack of a traditional build will bother them less than some other clubs. Taira’s less-than-statuesque presentation could ultimately have nothing to do with his career path, but it makes him an outlier. Investing in starting pitching is already a risky proposition from an injury standpoint. Pushing your chips in for physical outliers ratchets up the risk factor a little more.
Another issue with Taira is his circuitous career path. The right-hander’s 2026 numbers are excellent, but he only has one other season as a full-time starter on his resume (2023). In both 2024 and 2025, 71 of his 76 appearances came out of the bullpen. He logged just 101.1 innings in those two campaigns combined. Taira doesn’t have an extensive track record as an NPB starter, and his workload may need to be handled with care initially. Any work stoppage that erases a notable section of the season could do that organically, though.
Hiromi Itoh
Position: SP
Age: 29
2026 NPB stats: 8.29 K/9, 1.77 BB/9, 0.83 HR/9 in 172.2 IP over 26 starts with a 3.23 ERA.
Contract predictions:
Potential Blue Jays fit: While Taira could be fairly considered a high-risk, middle-of-the-rotation type, Itoh clearly profiles as a back-end innings eater.
The 29-year-old right-hander sits in the low-90s with his fastball and gets by on a deep repertoire of secondary pitches. None of those pitches are clear strikeout offerings at the MLB level and the veteran is more likely to offer reliability than dominance on a per-inning basis.
Over the last three seasons, Itoh’s 545.2 innings pitched tops NPB by 36.1 frames. Only Cristopher Sánchez, Logan Webb, Kevin Gausman, and Tarik Skubal have topped that total in the major leagues.
Paying for durability isn’t always the most exciting move in free agency, but prioritizing that trait has served the Blue Jays well in the past. The best-case scenario for Itoh might be a Chris Bassitt-like run over the next few years where he keeps opponents guessing to stay effective despite below-average velocity as he seldom misses a start.
Kona Takahashi
Position: SP
Age: 29
2026 NPB stats: 7.42 K/9, 3.06 BB/9, 0.78 HR/9 in 138.1 IP over 22 starts with a 2.54 ERA.
Potential Blue Jays fit: The reason Takahashi doesn’t have contract predictions is that he hasn’t landed on major top-50 free-agent lists. He profiles as more of a roll of the dice to compete for a rotation spot than a player who should get one handed to him, even if he deserves credit for producing a 3.30 ERA over 1337.1 NPB innings in his career.
Like Itoh, he sits in the low-90s and he’s always run excellent groundball rates, including a career-best 58.5 per cent in 2026. His low strikeout rate has to be a concern for MLB suitors, though, and his 7.42 K/9 last season is a touch high for his standards, as he was below seven in each of the five years before 2026.
Takahashi might carve out a niche as a back-of-the-rotation groundballer or multi-inning reliever, but he’s significantly less likely to play a major role than the other players on this list. He generated some MLB interest last off-season, but ultimately returned to Japan.
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