The Boston Red Sox's corner infield spots are defined by uncertainty this offseason — Alex Bregman could leave in free agency to sign somewhere else for the rest of his career fresh after Boston's Rafael Devers trade, and Triston Casas may not be ready to start at first base by Opening Day.
The Red Sox are widely expected to reunite with Bregman and they've been linked to Pete Alonso to take up first base and remedy their power outage. But both stars could still be too pricey for Boston (despite having plenty of money to sign them and more), so it could pursue other options for the corner infield.
Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) veteran Kazuma Okamoto was posted for MLB free agency by his longtime team, the Yomiyuri Giants. His signing window opened at 8 a.m. on November 21 and he has 45 days, until January 4, to sign with an MLB team. If he doesn't sign, he'll be returned to the Giants to continue his NPB career.
Okamoto should have no problem finding a club to take him on, though. The veteran is one of the most prolific sluggers of his time in NPB, and great defense rounds out his profile as one of the more solid all-around players on this year's market.
NBP star slugger, corner infielder Kazuma Okamoto posted for MLB free agency and Red Sox should be interested
Okamoto is a career .277/.361/.521 hitter with an .882 OPS and 248 home runs in 1074 games across 11 seasons for the Giants. He posted six consecutive seasons with at least 30 home runs from 2018-22. Okamoto only played 69 games in 2025, but still logged a .327/.416/.598 slash line with a 1.014 OPS, 15 home runs and 49 RBI.
The 29-year-old has played mostly third base in his career, but he's shown he's also a great first baseman. He's made 33 errors (.977 fielding percentage) over 662 appearances at third base and 14 errors (.996 fielding percentage) in 478 appearances at first base.
The Red Sox have also been linked to another Japanese infielder and slugger, Munetaka Murakami, who was posted for MLB free agency on November 7. His corner infield positioning and slugging ability also make him a good fit in Boston, but Okamoto suits its needs better. The latter has more experience and the Red Sox could lose multiple veterans this offseason, and they need to tune up their infield defense after another year of leading the league in errors. Murakami's third base defense won't fly in the majors and although he's better at first base, the Red Sox should still seek improved defense given their struggles.
There will be fierce competition for Okamoto's services this winter, and the Red Sox should be in the mix. He could come at a lower price than Alonso and he'd give a defensive boost Kyle Schwarber can't provide.