Free-agent regrets usually take a little digging. This one doesn’t.
Kazuma Okamoto was there for the taking, at least long enough for the Mariners to get involved in early January. Toronto ended up with him on a four-year, $60 million deal, and that decision is looking better by the week.
Through his first 104 games, Okamoto has 23 home runs, more than any Mariners hitter has managed. Seattle’s third basemen, as a group, have eight.
That gap tells the story pretty quickly.
The fit for Seattle was obvious from the start. The Mariners needed a right-handed bat, and they needed someone who could actually hold down third base without a weekly reshuffle.
Instead, the position has become a moving target. Colt Emerson got a look as a rookie.
J.P. Crawford shifted off his natural spot.
Brendan Donovan was supposed to help, but he’s been available for only 25 games because of a groin injury. Weston Wilson came in after Philadelphia designated him for assignment, and Buddy Kennedy has since been designated for assignment by the Mariners.
That’s not a plan so much as a scavenger hunt.
What makes the miss sting more is that Okamoto’s contract wasn’t some outrageous bidding-war number. Toronto gave him $15 million per season, and even with the posting fee attached, it was still a pretty standard price for an established middle-of-the-order bat entering his age-30 season.
The Dodgers weren’t out there throwing around another quarter-billion dollars. This was a real opportunity, not a fantasy.
Seattle had already committed five years and $92.5 million to Josh Naylor, so the budget was clearly tight. That’s understandable.
But Jorge Polanco had also left for the Mets, and the Donovan trade was still a month away when Okamoto was in play. At that moment, the infield was unfinished and the Mariners were still looking for answers.
If the money was gone, they were window-shopping. If it wasn’t, they missed.
Either way, the result is the same. Okamoto hasn’t turned into a superstar the second he landed in the majors, but he has been productive while adjusting to a new league. He’s hitting .224/.304/.441, has handled third base competently, and his 23rd homer broke Ohtani’s record for the most by a Japanese-born MLB rookie.
OKAMOTO SAN!
NUMBER 23 - THE MOST BY A JAPANESE-BORN ROOKIE! pic.twitter.com/lIKeAspOFb
- Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) July 25, 2026
That kind of production would absolutely play in Seattle, where the offense is batting .230 and the front office is still searching for a right-handed bat.
Donovan deserves a fair read here. He’s a good player, and when he’s been healthy, he’s given the Mariners the sort of disciplined, useful at-bats they needed.
He reached base, worked counts and brought a different shape to the lineup. The issue was never whether he could hit.
The issue was everything the Mariners asked him to cover.
Seattle handed a left-handed utility player a job that basically combined three different roles: everyday leadoff hitter, primary third baseman, backup first baseman, and emergency coverage everywhere else. Before Opening Day, it was reasonable to wonder whether that much versatility could hold together.
Then the groin injury hit, and Donovan played only 25 games. That wasn’t on him. It just exposed how fragile the setup was.
Okamoto was the cleaner answer. He bats right-handed.
He brings real home-run power. He is an actual third baseman.
No juggling act required.
Seattle went the flexible route and turned third base into a revolving door. Toronto picked one player and committed. Whatever the bigger roster picture says, the Blue Jays got the hot corner right.
We can’t know whether Okamoto would have picked Seattle. But the Mariners were in the mix, and there’s no sign they ever pushed hard enough to make Toronto uncomfortable.
Now Okamoto is thriving, and Seattle is still patching together one of the weakest third-base situations in the league. The Mariners’ biggest free-agent miss isn’t hard to find. He’s in Toronto, standing at third base.
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