Was Okamoto a quesadilla away from THREE homers?

MINNEAPOLIS -- To understand Kazuma Okamoto's impact on the Blue Jays, don’t watch the ball fly out of the yard or his slow trot around the bases. Instead, watch what happens when Okamoto gets back to the dugout.

Twice on Friday -- after each of his no-doubt home runs to left field -- the Blue Jays formed a tunnel in their dugout with a dozen bodies on either side. As Okamoto bounced down the dugout steps and began celebrating with his teammates, everyone bowed in unison. Only then could the party really begin.

“That made me really happy to see my teammates cheering me on like that,” Okamoto said through interpreter Yusuke Oshima. “That one caught me off guard. I didn’t see that coming."

Okamoto's sixth and seventh home runs of the season made all the difference in Friday’s 7-3 win over the Twins at Target Field. At his best, Okamoto can be a multiplier for the Blue Jays, and this is exactly what his best looks like.

He just missed his eighth, too, flying out to the warning track in his last at-bat of the game.

“I didn’t have my pregame quesadilla today," Okamoto said. "I think if I’d had that, it would have been a home run."

This lineup still needs many things. It needs healthy bodies, some better bounces and more power, but every conversation we have about this lineup needs to center on Vladimir Guerrero Jr. That’s why it’s important to frame what Okamoto is giving the Blue Jays lately around this specific version of Guerrero.

This 2026 Vladdy is chasing a batting title, not a home run crown. Even after an 0-for-4 night, he’s batting .342, second in Major League Baseball. The Blue Jays are still trying to wrangle some sort of offensive identity in 2026, and looking back to the ‘25 identity shows us the challenges they’re facing.

“Everyone knew what they were doing. This guy is going to grind, this guy is going to make contact, this guy is going to slug. I think we’re still sorting through that, to be honest with you,” manager John Schneider said. “The domino effect of not having guys leaves some guys trying to do things that they’re not great at or trying to do too much. It’s a constant thing we talk about every day.”

In a perfect world, Schneider says, they could just bottle up the version of Vladdy we all saw in the postseason. That version would win the next 15 American League MVP Awards and rewrite the record book, though, so that’s a bit much to ask.

This version of Guerrero can work. It’s just a different flavor of greatness, but if Guerrero is going to carry this profile through the season with more average than power, there needs to be power around him.

“With certain things right now, you’re asking him to provide average and slug. You’re asking George [Springer] to provide average and slug,” Schneider said. “But you don’t want them to try to do too much. It would be nice if it was … I don’t want to say .300 and more homers, but it shows how good Vlad is. Hit and let it rip. The team kind of follows his lead, too.”

If you plopped prime Edwin Encarnacion behind Guerrero right now, then a .342 average works just fine. The problem so far -- if we can really stretch the definition of “problem” -- is that Guerrero is getting on base at an elite rate with little power in this lineup to drive him in. Enter Okamoto, who has spent the past couple of weeks making the case to be the Blue Jays’ full-time cleanup hitter and the man tasked with driving Guerrero home for the next four seasons.

It’s arguably the second-most important spot in this lineup, and outside of Guerrero, Okamoto has the second-most power to change the trajectory of this entire group.

“This is a really good lineup, and I’m just a part of it,” Okamoto said. “My mentality is to pass the baton, make sure that I’m not ending an inning or ending a rally. I just make sure that I pass the baton off to the next batter.”

As great as Guerrero is, this isn’t the NBA and Guerrero can’t be a one-man show. The face of the franchise needs protection -- another threat behind him to multiply the pressure on a pitcher facing the heart of this lineup. With the two biggest swings of the night, Okamoto showed us that the answer may already be here.