On the surface it seems silly for the Yankees, who have already invested significant financial capital into its rotation, to add another starter in free agency.
With that being said, injuries have put into question the effectiveness of both Carlos Rodon and Gerrit Cole for 2026, as both will be returning from elbow surgery.
For Cole, he’s coming back from a surgery that has seemed to end the career of Walker Buehler, and for Rodon, his bone chip and age align with what Zack Britton dealt with in 2021, the beginning of the end for the star closer.
It’s not to fearmonger and say that both pitchers will be ineffective, but rather that it’s not a guarantee that these pitchers return to form, and its where Tatsuya Imai could help the Yankees.
Japan’s top starter this past season, he could be posted and provide the Yankees with both a remedy to their rotation issues and a way to get back into the Japanese market.
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Tatsuya Imai Could Be the Perfect Fit For the Yankees’ Offseason
The already-existing pitch mix that Tatsuya Imai has is intruiging, sporting a four-seamer that generates better-than-average vertical movement from his 5’0 release height.
You can expect that ride to go from above-average to about average when he goes from using an NPB ball to an MLB one since it’s a little larger and happens to be slicker, making it harder to spin.
Imai’s fastball sits at 95 MPH, but he can run it up to 99 MPH when needed, as he tends to use his velocity when he absolutely needs it, similar to Max Fried.
To work with his fastball, Imai has two different offspeed pitches, a splitter and a ‘sinker’ which is described as a vulcan changeup.
He also possesses a slider that moves towards same-handed hitters, not away from them, and a curveball that rounds out his mix.
He can generate a lot of downward action and naturally pronates when he throws the ball, which is a little different from the low-slot right-handers that the Yankees have usually worked with.
Guys like Will Warren, Michael King, and Clarke Schmidt get around the baseball, which is why they all feature big sliders and have relatively inefficient spin.
In the case of Imai, he’s more like Bryan Woo or Luis Castillo, highly efficient spin from a low arm angle, so I wouldn’t look at Imai as a pitcher who can add a sweeper with the Yankees.
What they could add is a true sinker, one that has similar velocity to his four-seamer with depth and arm-side movement, something that both Woo and Castillo have.
That low and wide release point for Imai would make a sinker inside to a righty and easy pitch to jam hitters with, and if he can locate it on the first-base side of the plate it’ll result in tons of called strikes as well.
Few organizations develop sinkers better than the Yankees do, they helped Max Fried and Carlos Rodon finetune their sinkers and those pitches were excellent all year.
New York was fifth this past season in sinker Stuff+ (105) and are third since Stuff+ began being tracked in 2020, so there’s reason to believe Imai could develop a quality one with the Yankees.
Considering he already has a deep pitch mix, the Yankees don’t have much work to do if they acquire him beyond that, and the stuff is enticing enough to believe he could immediately become a no. 2 starter for a contender.
The age is a big factor here; at just 27 years old there’s reason to believe an organization with excellent pitching infastructure could take an already excellent pitcher and make him better.
It’s easy to view Yoshinobu Yamamoto as a finished product when he got to the United States, but it ignores improvements he’s made with the Dodgers to elevate his game further.
During the 2024 season, Yamamoto had an 8.3% Barrel% and .375 xwOBACON, meaning he was susceptible to damage contact and loud contact.
This was mostly due to a four-seamer that had below-average shape, a pitch he relied on to get chases on his splitter, but the Dodgers would have the right-hander throw more sinkers and cutters in 2025.
By mixing up his fastball shapes, he made his four-seamer more deceptive, resulting in a .280 SLG% versus the .419 SLG% he allowed on it the year prior.
There’s simply more money poured into training in the United States, the Dodgers and Yankees have more money to invest in player development than the Orix Buffaloes or the Seibu Lions.
The Yankees could slap a solid sinker and cutter on Tatsuya Imai and lean into his craftiness even more, making him a three-fastball pitcher with a deep bag of secondaries to mix-in as well.
As things stand right now, Imai could come over the United States with no added development and be a reliable middle-of-the-rotation starter, but if the Yankees see more, they should be all-over the chance to unlock it.
Why did Shohei Ohtani go to the Dodgers? There’s no other organization on the planet that would invest more money in improving their players, and their track record shows it.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki’s improvements in their time with LA will resonate with NPB pitchers making the jump to the Major Leagues; what do the Yankees have to show them?
The chance to turn Tatsuya Imai into a star in New York is one the Yankees should not pass up on, both because there’s a need on the roster for more arms and because its their chance to show upcoming NPB arms where they should go.