{"id":425023,"date":"2025-12-04T22:10:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T22:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/425023\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T22:10:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T22:10:12","slug":"cubs-phillies-yankees-interested-in-tatsuya-imai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/425023\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs, Phillies, Yankees Interested In Tatsuya Imai"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Seibu Lions of Japan\u2019s Nippon Professional Baseball posted ace Tatsuya Imai<\/a><\/strong> for major league teams back on Nov. 19. The flamethrowing 27-year-old has until Jan. 2 to negotiate a deal with interested MLB clubs. The Mets, Cubs and Orioles have each been linked to the right-hander so far. The Cubs, in particular, are expected to be a \u201cstrong\u201d player in Imai\u2019s market, per Bruce Levine of 670 The Score<\/a>. They also made an offer to Dylan Cease<\/a><\/strong> before the former Cy Young runner-up (and former Cubs draftee) signed with the Blue Jays last week, according to Levine.<\/p>\n

Jon Heyman of the New York Post adds<\/a> the Phillies and Yankees as another pair of teams in the running for Imai. He adds that Imai\u2019s camp could schedule in-person visits with interested teams following next week\u2019s Winter Meetings \u2014 if he hasn\u2019t already agreed to a deal by that point.<\/p>\n

The Cubs make a sensible fit for Imai, even after countryman Shota Imanaga<\/a><\/strong> accepted Chicago\u2019s $22.025MM qualifying offer, opting to forgo free agency in the process. Manager Craig Counsell<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s rotation currently includes Imanaga, Cade Horton<\/a><\/strong>, Matthew Boyd<\/a><\/strong>, Jameson Taillon<\/a><\/strong> and Colin Rea<\/a><\/strong>. Ace Justin Steele<\/a><\/strong> is still on the mend from UCL surgery performed last April. He won\u2019t be ready for Opening Day. Javier Assad<\/a><\/strong> and Ben Brown<\/a><\/strong> could both factor in, too, but both have bullpen experience and minor league options remaining.<\/p>\n

Chicago\u2019s interest in bolstering the rotation is well-known. Even after Imanaga opted to return, the Cubs have reportedly been seeking a playoff-caliber starter to add to the top portion of their staff. Imai isn\u2019t necessarily a slam-dunk to fit that description, but his electric stuff and recent performance in NPB suggest he has that ceiling.<\/p>\n

Imai, who\u2019ll turn 28 next May, has posted a sub-3.00 ERA in each of the past four NPB seasons \u2014 headlined by a career-low 1.92 mark in 163 innings in 2025. Along the way, he\u2019s steadily increased his strikeout rate while at the same time lowering his walk rate. Those improvements culminated in last year\u2019s dominant season, wherein Imai punched out 27.8% of the batters he faced and cut his walk rate to a tidy 7%. He\u2019s one of NPB\u2019s hardest throwers, topping out around 99 mph and sitting more comfortably in the mid-90s. Imai complements that pitch with a slider, splitter and changeup.<\/p>\n

Signing Imai would push Rea back into his familiar swingman role and could even create a logjam if everyone is healthy once Steele finishes off his rehab from surgery. That\u2019s wishful thinking, however, given the proliferation of pitching injuries throughout the sport. And if the Cubs\u00a0do manage to have a full contingent of healthy rotation arms at that point, it\u2019d fall under the \u201cgood problem to have\u201d cliche. A playoff rotation including a healthy Steele, Horton and Imai could be formidable.<\/p>\n

The Phillies, meanwhile, haven\u2019t been big players in free agency for pitchers \u2014 at least not to the extent they have with hitters \u2014 outside of retaining homegrown Aaron Nola<\/a><\/strong> on a seven-year contract. However, that decision is now one of many contributing to a far shakier outlook than we\u2019re used to seeing with the Philadelphia rotation.<\/p>\n

Left-hander Cristopher Sanchez<\/a><\/strong> broke out as a top-tier arm with this year\u2019s runner-up finish in Cy Young voting, but the rest of the staff has more questions and\/or dwindling club control. Ranger Suarez<\/a><\/strong> is already a free agent. Zack Wheeler<\/a><\/strong> underwent thoracic outlet surgery late in the season. He\u2019s owed $84MM over the next two seasons. Nola struggled to the worst extent of his career, posting an ERA north of 6.00 in 2025. Jesus Luzardo<\/a><\/strong> is a quality mid-rotation arm but will be a free agent next winter. Taijuan Walker<\/a><\/strong> is also entering the final season of a four-year deal. He rebounded to an extent in 2025, but the first two seasons of that $72MM pact were a disaster. Andrew Painter<\/a><\/strong> has long been one of the game\u2019s top pitching prospects, but he was hit hard in Triple-A during his return from 2024 Tommy John surgery.<\/p>\n

Obviously, the Phillies already have a lot of money on the long-term books \u2014 but perhaps not to the extent some might think. Nola, Trea Turner<\/a><\/strong> and Bryce Harper<\/a><\/strong> are the only players signed beyond the 2027 season. A backloaded deal for Imai \u2014 likely one including at least one opt-out opportunity \u2014 could make his salary more manageable in years one and two. Those seasons would dovetail with the remaining years on the contracts of Wheeler (through 2027) as well as Walker (through 2026), Nick Castellanos<\/a><\/strong> (through \u201926), Jose Alvarado<\/a><\/strong> (through \u201926) and Matt Strahm<\/a><\/strong> (through \u201926).<\/p>\n

Signing Imai would give the Phillies another large contract on the books but also offers protection against a potentially thinned-out starting group come 2027. Luzardo and Walker are free agents at that point. Painter hasn\u2019t pitched in the majors yet. It\u2019s hard to know what to expect from Wheeler and Nola in 2026 \u2014 let alone 2027. Imai (or another multi-year rotation acquisition) could provide some protection, although he\u2019s obviously an untested commodity himself (at least against MLB opposition).<\/p>\n

On paper, the Yankees\u2019 rotation need is the least acute of this group. Gerrit Cole<\/a><\/strong> could be back relatively early in 2026. Max Fried<\/a><\/strong> was dominant in his first season in Yankee Pinstripes. Carlos Rodon<\/a><\/strong> was outstanding in 33 starts. Luis Gil<\/a><\/strong>, Cam Schlittler<\/a><\/strong> and Will Warren<\/a><\/strong> are all impressive-looking young starters. Clarke Schmidt<\/a><\/strong> could be back late in the season after July Tommy John surgery.<\/p>\n

The Yankees already have three pitchers on contracts valued at $162MM or more. Imai would very likely require a fourth commitment of over $100MM and do so at a time when the team is facing questions in the infield and in the outfield. If the Yankees believe Imai can pitch at or near the top of a major league rotation, however, they could sign him and use some of their young pitching and\/or prospect depth to make compelling offers for bats on the trade market. It\u2019s a thing offseason with regard to free-agent hitters, after all.<\/p>\n

Whoever signs Imai will need to do so within the next four weeks. His posting window closes Jan. 2. The team to sign him will also owe a separate release fee to the Lions in NPB. That fee will equal 20% of the contract\u2019s first $25MM, plus 17.5% of the next $25MM and 15% of any guaranteed money thereafter. Additional earnings unlocked via incentives, escalators and club option years would also be subject to that 15% rate once they become guaranteed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Seibu Lions of Japan\u2019s Nippon Professional Baseball posted ace Tatsuya Imai for major league teams back on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":425024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[62,178619,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-425023","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tatsuya-imai","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115663590276950766","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}