The Tatsuya Imai sweepstakes has come to a close.
The Houston Astros have signed the Japanese right-hander to a deal, ESPN reported on Thursday. Imai signed a three-year deal with opt outs after every season and a total value of $63 million, per the Athletic. The deadline to sign Imai, who was posted in mid-November, was Friday.
The Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres were among the teams that had been linked to signing Imai throughout the offseason, with the Astros coming seemingly out of nowhere to get a deal done.
The 27-year-old Imai pitched eight seasons in the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) league and nine seasons professionally altogether for the Saitama Seibu Lions. Across a combined 187 career appearances, Imai recorded a 3.07 ERA, 1.27 WHIP and 1,045 strikeouts over 1,077.2 innings pitched. Last season, Imai posted a career-best ERA (1.92) and WHIP (0.89).
FOX Sports MLB analyst Rowan Kavner ranked Imai as the 17th-best free agent available this offseason, saying that, “He’s not a particularly big guy, but teams who just watched Yoshinobu Yamamoto win World Series MVP honors might not be scared off by that. Imai continues to get better every year, seeing his strikeout rate rise and his walk rate decline precipitously.”
He joins an Astros team that finished second in the American League West in 2025 and missed the postseason, failing to even secure a wild card. While they still have ace Hunter Brown in the rotation, their other top starter from ’25, Framber Valdez remains a free agent, and might command a significant long-term contract.
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