The Phillies may have just secured a massive edge in the race to land elite Japanese ace Tatsuya Imai ⚡.DD
The Phillies’ previous failings might actually help them here.
The Philadelphia Phillies have been working to make inroads into the Japanese player free agent market for a while now. They just got a massive boost to their chances of signing their first player straight out of the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) league after some recent comments by right-hander Tatsuya Imai.
After multiple failed attempts over the past few offseasons, including Yoshinobu Yamamoto in 2023, the Phillies will be in on the posted Japanese players again this winter. That reportedly includes the 27-year-old Imai, who was officially posted on Nov. 18, per MLB.com’s Brian Murphy.
According to a post on X (formerly Twitter) from user @NekoSuke5_5_2, a fan account focused on the Seibu Lions, Imai made remarks about wanting to play for a team without any Japanese players already on the roster.
“(If there were Japanese people) they’d just tell you anything if you asked, right?” Imai said in the translated post, apparently taken from a Japanese talk show. “I don’t really want that; in a way, I want to experience that survival vibe, you know, and when facing cultural differences, making how I overcome them on my own one of the fun parts.”
Phillies’ chances in Tatsuya Imai sweepstakes just got a huge boost … because they’re not the Dodgers
That immediately increases the Phillies’ chances in the Imai sweepstakes. We all know about the Los Angeles Dodgers and their prolific knack for signing Japanese players. They signed Roki Sasaki last offseason. Before that it was Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Those gets were obviously helped along by signing Shohei Ohtani ahead of the 2023 season.
If you’re still not convinced that the Dodgers won’t swoop in and abscond with Imai, it has also been reported that Imai said on TV Asahi that he wants to beat the Dodgers.
“I want to take [the Dodgers] down. (Playing together with players like Ohtani, Yamamoto, Sasaki, and others) of course sounds fun, but I think beating a team like that and becoming world champions would be the most valuable thing in my life,” Imai said, per @NekoSuke5_5_2.
That’s certainly a refreshing take from a Japanese player, especially if you’re a Phillies fan. As back-to-back NL East champions and the second-best team record-wise in MLB last season, the Phillies are positioned as a direct contender to the Dodgers’ throne.
But Imai wasn’t done there. He also singled out Ohtani as a reason to not sign with the Dodgers, or rather wanting to test himself against the greatest baseball player on the planet.
“It’s Ohtani Shohei, after all,” Imai said, per @NekoSuke5_5_2. “I really want to test how far my fastball can go against him, or rather, I have a strong desire to pitch against Ohtani Shohei.”
Imai ranks No. 11 on MLB.com’s free agent list for this offseason. The Japanese star hurler has spent eight seasons pitching for the Lions. In 24 starts this year, he went 10-5 with five complete games, a 1.92 ERA (the league average ERA in NPB is generally lower than MLB) with 178 strikeouts in 163 2/3 innings.
Since debuting with Seibu in 2017, he has a career 3.07 ERA with two All-Star selections. That’s been even lower over the last three seasons, sporting a 2.18 mark in 470 innings since 2022.
Imai is listed at 5-foot-11 and 154 pounds, but the crown jewel of his wide pitch mix is a mind-90s fastball that can reach 99 mph. He also has a changeup, a splitter and started incorporating a sinker late in the season, per Murphy.
The Phillies and other suitors have until Jan. 2 at 5 p.m. ET to negotiate for Imai’s services. If Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski and general manager Preston Mattingly come out victorious and get a deal done, it would be a massive addition to the starting rotation. It would also finally give the Phillies a legitimate foothold in the Pacific Rim.
