The Los Angeles Dodgers won the 2025 World Series behind the arm of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the team’s prized free-agent signing in 2024. And Yamamoto had plenty of help along the way, with Roki Sasaki, the Dodgers’ prized free-agent signing in 2025, and Shohei Ohtani, whose two-way status is a modern-day cheat code, pitching in.
At one point, all three players were stars in Nippon Professional Baseball with the desire to prove their talent could shine in Major League Baseball. Now the Houston Astros are hoping Tatsuya Imai will be the next Japanese pitcher to make that leap. The Astros agreed to a deal with Imai on Thursday, according to multiple reports.
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The deal is reportedly for three seasons and can max out at $63 million, per Chandler Rome of The Athletic. Imai’s contract also reportedly contains opt-outs after each season.
While it’s a shorter deal than expected, Imai will reportedly receive the second-highest average-annual salary of any Japanese-born MLB pitcher, behind Yamamoto in the top spot.
The move gives the Astros a potential top-of-the-rotation starter to replace Framber Valdez, who is currently a free agent. The Imai deal doesn’t prevent the Astros from bringing back Valdez, but it could signal that Houston is willing to move on from its former ace.
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The Astros don’t have many set rotation spots. Hunter Brown will likely move into the team’s No. 1 spot, but there’s an argument to be made that Imai is now the team’s second-best starting pitcher. That might depend on whether Cristian Javier can regain his form after a down year in 2025.
The oft-injured Lance McCullers Jr. slots in next in the team’s rotation. The team’s lack of starting pitching depth not only makes the Imai deal necessary for Houston but also essentially ensures he’ll open the season as one of the team’s top options in the rotation. Houston is looking to bounce back after missing the playoffs last season despite an 87-75 record.
The 27-year-old Imai comes to MLB after an impressive year with the Seibu Lions in Japan. In 2025, he posted a 1.92 ERA over 163 2/3 innings. He registered 178 strikeouts and 45 walks.
While those numbers are impressive, Imai is coming to the majors with less hype than any of the Dodgers’ three stars who made the same transition. Given Ohtani’s status as a two-way player, comparing him to other players is foolish. But from purely a pitching standpoint, Sasaki and Yamamoto had more impressive track records than Imai when the Dodgers’ duo came to the majors.
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That, combined with offense being slightly down in NPB, caused Imai to be viewed as a step below some of the top starting pitchers on the free-agent market. He ranked No. 14 on Yahoo’s list. However, at 27 years old, he still has the potential to develop further in MLB.
As things stand, the righty boasts strikeout stuff with the ability to limit walks and home runs. And he brings a unique repertoire to the majors. In addition to a fastball and a slider, Imai throws a splitter and a changeup, a rarely used combination. That could give him a leg up early on, when major-league hitters will be learning how to hit against him without fully developed scouting reports.
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The typical concerns for a pitcher coming over from NPB apply for Imai, including the different size of the baseball and the increased workload that comes with pitching in an MLB rotation. Imai showed some signs the latter won’t be an issue, as he not only upped his workload his last two years with the Lions but also showed better fastball velocity during that stretch, a sign that the increased workload didn’t add too much fatigue to his arm.
Given the success of the Dodgers’ trio — as well as pitchers such as the Chicago Cubs’ Shota Imanaga and the New York Mets’ Kodai Senga — there will be pressure on Imai to perform at a high level immediately. The Astros believe he’s capable of delivering on that promise and were willing to commit significant money to have him on their side.
