The Yankees are expected to be one of the favorites to land RHP Tatsuya Imai, and while MLB fans have become accoustomed to seeing star Japanese players head to the Dodgers, that hurdle may not exist this time around.
Originally reported by Yankee Source, who described the team’s interest in Imai as ‘strong’, Francys Romero corroborated said report by referring to New York as one of the favorites for his services.
In speaking to people familiar with the organization’s thinking, a message of getting back into the Japanese market is one that has been important to higher ups this winter.
For over a decade, the Yankees have become the bridesmaid in Japanese sweepstakes; Shohei Ohtani rejected them twice, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki went to Los Angeles, but now they’ll have a chance to land Imai.
While not as talented as Yamamoto, the right-hander is widely regarded as the best pitcher in the NPB right now, and he could provide an immediate impact to their rotation for 2026.
READ MORE: Yankees News & Rumors: Interest in Luis Robert JR., avoid Bichette, more
A Motiavted Pursuit of Tatsuya Imai Could Get the Yankees a Big International Win
In both the postseason and their pursuit of Japanese free agents, the Yankees have found themselves in a spirited pursuit of being crowned a winner, but they’ve never sealed the deal.
Close doesn’t get you a consolidation prize in a free agent sweepstakes, but their repeated failures to lure in NPB players might come to an end with Tatsuya Imai.
The right-hander had a sub-2.00 ERA in his final season with the Seibu Lions, and now he’ll be posted to come over to Major League Baseball, where his services will be highly sought-after.
Clubs such as the Blue Jays and Mets are all but certainly going to involve themselves in these sweepstakes, but the potential absence of the Dodgers creates an open lane to land an impact pitcher.
When I delivered my three bold takes for the offseason, one of those takes included the Yankees signing Imai to a six-year deal, and that belief is rooted in their aforementioned desire to net a Japanese star.
There’s value for the immediate future, increasing the team’s expected win total for 2026, but it also gives them a chance to take an unfinished product in Tatsuya Imai and create a star.
Sporting a fastball at 95 MPH from a low armslot, Imai’s heater sets up his splitter, slider, curveball, and ‘sinker’ that’s more of a vulcan changeup.
His slider is weird because it moves into righties rather than away from them, but there’s projectability for him to add both a sinker and cutter.
As for his spin tendencies, Imai has very efficient spin and struggles to move the ball away from same-handed hitters, comparable to someone like Luis Castillo.
In theory, the Yankees could look at players such as Munetaka Murakami or Kazuma Okamoto to try and net a Japanese free agent, but there are some warts with both players.
Murakami is a strikeout machine who comes with plenty of risk, needing to make adjustments to his swing in order to avoid catastropichally-high strikeout rates, and his glove at both 1B and 3B is unpleasant.
As for Okamoto, while his bat is safer and his glove is better, the Yankees have a third baseman and a first baseman already, which could make other teams more appealing to him.
Tatsuya Imai directly slots into the team’s rotation for 2026 and the years after, and with the upside he possesses and his already-existing skillset at 27 years old, the Yankees could get two big wins from this:
First one is an excellent middle of the rotation arm who blossoms into a no. 2 starter, the other is they can show the NPB world that they can elevate the games of pitchers in the biggest market on the planet.