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Guest: Former Blue Jays all-star slugger Justin Smoak

This week in Deep Left Field, we find out about the Blue Jays' new free-agent acquisition, Kazuma Okamoto, from someone who played with him.

Justin Smoak, a five-year Jay and an all-star in 2017, when he hit 38 home runs, played his final professional season in Japan in 2021 as a teammate of Okamoto's, and joins us to give his up-close-and-personal scouting report on the Jays' $60 million (US) man, as well as some memories of playing with 20-year-old Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

You'll also hear highlights of Okamoto's introductory news conference, where the six-time Japanese all-star talked about what brought him to Toronto and how he expects to contribute and also showed off his sneaky sense of humour.

And, as always, we open up the mailbag at deepleftfield@thestar.ca to hear from you!

Listen here or subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts. If you would like to support the journalism of the Toronto Star, you can at thestar.com/subscribe.

We get an up-close-and-personal scouting report on new Blue Jay Kazuma Okamoto