Per multiple reports, Japanese right-hander Tatsuya Imai has agreed to a deal with the Astros. Jesse Rogers of ESPN reported that the deal is for three years with opt-outs after each of the first two seasons, and it will be the second-largest AAV for a Japanese pitcher in the posting process behind Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Chandler Rome of The Athletic tweeted that the deal maxes out at $63 million, and Jon Heyman clarified that it’s a $54 million guarantee with $3 million per year in incentives.
Ed. note: It’s actually the third-highest AAV for a Japanese pitcher coming over, with Yamamoto ($27.05M) and Masahiro Tanaka ($22.14M) getting more. Imai reportedly turned down longer deals that would have guaranteed him more with a lower AAV.
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Those escalators should be easy to reach as long as he’s moderately healthy: $1 million each for 80, 90, and 100 innings pitched.
That sounds very much like the report about the White Sox trying to land Imai with a shorter deal than other teams were offering. The opt-outs are a standard Scott Boras bargaining tactic, but it’s likely the Astros were able to offer Imai something other teams could not. He had mentioned earlier in the offseason that he might prefer a team without other Japanese stars, and that he’d like to beat the Dodgers rather than join them. Perhaps Houston also wooed him with a blueprint for how to best maximize his stuff as he transitions from NPB to MLB.
If Imai was serious about wanting to forge his own path sans elder statesmen, the Cubs might not have been in the running. Add in their reluctance to do immediate opt-outs, and they were almost certainly on the periphery when figures were discussed. Based on the $18-21 million AAV and relatively short term, it’s hard to imagine that unwillingness to meet his price was the issue here.
It sounds there was indeed hesitancy among MLB evaluators over how Imai’s stuff will translate, and Lance Brozdowski said multiple team sources “skewed skeptical.” Even so, the terms of this deal are so far below expectations that there has to be more to it. Alas.
Now we’ll see if the Cubs go after another free agent starter or turn to the trade market for rotation help. This could also increase their interest in Alex Bregman, whose market will solidify after fellow Boras client Kazuma Okamoto makes his decision in the next couple of days.
Ed. note: As Rome pointed out, this deal comes a year after Japanese HVAC manufacturer Daikin bought the naming rights to Houston’s ballpark.
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