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Blue Jays' Kazuma Okamoto took a wild turn in recent games originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Kazuma Okamoto had turned into the hottest hitter on the Toronto Blue Jays.
Only a couple weeks ago, the Japanese import was proving exactly why the Jays gave him a four-year, $60 million contract to be their third baseman.
Things change quickly in baseball, though.
Right now, Okamoto is ice cold.
He's 2 for his last 34 with 18 strikeouts. He looks absolutely lost at the plate.
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There are a couple layers of trickiness here.
The first is that hitters get cold. It happens to the best of them. Aaron Judge, right at this very moment, is colder at the MLB level than he has ever been before.
The difference with Okamoto is that he's new. There's no proof that he can sustain success in MLB, because this is his very first foray through the league.
Have pitchers figured him out? If so, it's his turn to adjust.
Or is he simply out of rhythm in a way that would've caused an equivalent slump in NPB? Sometimes hitting just feels hard for a little while.
The Blue Jays' whole lineup has been a bit of a letdown this season, and so Okamoto's sudden slump has been particularly painful.
The hope in Toronto is that he can figure this out sooner rather than later, because right now, it's rough.
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