Star Japanese right-hander Tatsuya Imai and the Houston Astros are in agreement on a free agent contract, sources told ESPN’s Jeff Passan on Thursday.
Sources confirmed to ESPN that Imai is getting a three-year contract that guarantees $54 million and could be worth up to $63 million. The contract terms, which were first reported by MLB Network, include opt-outs.
Imai, 27, entered the posting system as one of the more intriguing potential free agents of this winter due to his similarities to 2025 postseason standouts Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Trey Yesavage. Agent Scott Boras compared Imai to Yamamoto, the World Series MVP, during the MLB general managers meetings in November.
“Certainly, he’s done everything Yamamoto’s done,” Boras said.
Imai had a standout 2025 season for the Seibu Lions of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, posting a 10-5 record with a 1.92 ERA and 178 strikeouts to 45 walks in 163⅔ innings. The right-hander has a powerful fastball and has played his entire career in Japan.
He pitched eight innings of a combined no-hitter against Fukuoka on April 18 and struck out 17 against Yokohama on June 17, breaking Daisuke Matsuzaka’s team record of 16 from 2004.
Imai has made great progress with his command over the past few seasons, taking his walks per nine innings from 5.1 in 2022 to 2.5 in 2025. Imai isn’t just a touch-and-feel type, with his fastball sitting between 93 and 97 mph and hitting 99 mph. Imai has also been effective even when his walk rates were higher, posting an ERA under 3.00 for the past four seasons in NPB.
He went 58-45 with a 3.15 ERA in eight seasons with Seibu, with 907 strikeouts in 963⅔ innings. He is a three-time All-Star.
Imai’s similarities to Yamamoto — an accomplished right-hander in his mid-20s who stands just under 6 feet and sported a better-than-average walk rate and an ERA under 2.00 in his last season in NPB — helped his market a bit, but there is also a long track record of pitchers generally similar to Yamamoto and Imai coming from NPB for the better part of two decades.
Imai’s slider doesn’t “slide,” with arm-side movement rather than the typical glove-side movement. But he performed the pitch well in 2025, drawing better-than-average outcomes of a 45% miss rate and a .212 expected wOBA. Yesavage, the Toronto Blue Jays‘ rookie, has a slider with this unusual shape and relies on a splitter as his best off-speed pitch, which is also true of Imai.
MLB teams that sign players through posting must pay a fee to the Asian team from which the player transfers: 20% for the first $25 million, 17.5% for the next $25 million and an additional 15% on every dollar above $50 million.
Imai will not be subject to a qualifying offer, so the Astros won’t have to give up draft compensation like they would have to do for free agent starting pitchers Framber Valdez, Ranger Suarez and Zac Gallen.
ESPN’s Jesse Rogers and Kiley McDaniel contributed to this report.
