The Los Angeles Dodgers received the 2025 World Series behind the arm of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the staff’s prized free-agent signing in 2024. And Yamamoto had loads of assist alongside the way in which, with Roki Sasaki, the Dodgers’ prized free-agent singing in 2025, and Shohei Ohtani, whose two-way standing is a modern-day cheat code, pitching in fairly a bit.
At one level, all three gamers had been stars in Nippon Professional Baseball with the need to show their expertise might shine in Major League Baseball. Now the Houston Astors are hoping Tatsuya Imai would be the subsequent Japanese pitcher to make that leap. The Astros reportedly agreed to a deal with Imai on Thursday, in accordance to Jon Heyman.
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The deal is reportedly for 3 seasons, and might max out at $63 million, per Chandler Rome of the The Athletic. Imai’s contract additionally reportedly incorporates choose outs after every season.
While it is a shorter deal than anticipated, Imai will obtain the second-highest average-annual salary of any Japanese-born pitcher, with Yamamoto taking the highest spot.
The transfer offers the Astros a possible top-of-the-rotation starter to exchange Framber Valdez, who’s at the moment a free agent. The Imai deal would not essentially stop the Astros from bringing Valdez again, although it might sign Houston is prepared to transfer on from their former ace.
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After shedding Valdez, the Astros do not have many set rotation spots. Hunter Brown will probably transfer into the staff’s No. 1 spot, however there’s an argument to be made that Imai is already the staff’s second-best beginning pitcher. That might rely on whether or not Cristian Javier can regain his type after a down 12 months in 2025.
After that, oft-injured Lance McCullers Jr. slots in subsequent within the staff’s rotation. The staff’s lack of depth on the place not solely makes the Imai deal vital for Houston, however basically ensures he’ll open the 12 months as one of many staff’s high choices within the rotation.
Houston is wanting to bounce again after lacking the playoffs final season regardless of an 87-75 file.
The 27-year-old Imai comes to MLB after a powerful 12 months with the Seibu Lions in Japan. In 2025, he posted a 1.92 ERA over 163 2/3 innings with the Lions. He registered 178 strikeouts and 45 walks.
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While these numbers are spectacular, Imai is coming to the majors with much less hype than any of the Dodgers’ three stars who made the identical transition. Given Ohtani’s standing as a two-way participant, evaluating him to different gamers is silly. But from purely a pitching standpoint, Sasaki and Yamamoto had extra spectacular observe information than Imai when the Dodgers’ duo got here to the majors.
That, mixed with offense being barely down in NPB, brought about Imai to be considered as a step below some of the top starting pitchers on the free-agent market.
At 27, nevertheless, Imai nonetheless has the chance to get higher. As is, the righty boasts strikeout stuff with the flexibility to restrict walks and residential runs. And he brings a singular repertoire to the majors. In addition to a fastball and a slider, Imai throws a splitter and a changeup, a not often used mixture. That might give him a leg up early on, when major-league hitters might be studying how to hit towards him with out totally developed scouting experiences.
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The typical considerations for a pitcher coming over from NPB apply for Imai, together with the completely different dimension of the baseball and the elevated workload that comes with pitching in an MLB rotation. Imai confirmed some indicators that the latter will not be a problem, as he not solely upped his workload his final two years with the Lions but additionally confirmed higher fastball velocity throughout that stretch, an indication that the elevated workload did not add an excessive amount of fatigue to his arm.
Given the success of the Dodgers’ trio — in addition to pitchers such because the Chicago Cubs’ Shota Imanaga and the New York Mets’ Kodai Senga — there might be stress on Imai to carry out at a excessive stage instantly.
The Astros consider he is able to delivering on that promise and had been prepared to shell out massive cash to have him on their facet.