Wanted Kazuma Okamoto already. But now I also want Tatsuya Imai, too.

Everyone agrees that if we want to stay at all relevant to NPB stars in the face of the Dodgers’ hoarding of them we need to start signing some big-name Japanese talent, and this feels like the year to do it.

We have $70M coming off the books.

Get righty slugger / hit-tool guy Kazuma Okamoto, 29, to play across 1B/3B/LF. Offer him 3/$50M. That’s $17M to the luxury tax.

Get righty pitcher Tats Imai to supplement a rotation that’s been roughed up. Passan says he’s the hardest-throwing starter in Japan, with a fastball that sits at 95 mph and tops out at 99, a vicious slider, a changeup, a splitter, a curveball and a sinker he picked up this season, generating a 1.50 ERA with 159 strikeouts, 37 walks and just four home runs allowed in 143⅔ innings pitched. 6/$150M. That’s another $25M.

This probably means we can’t get Tucker, but we can almost certainly sign Belli for something like 5/$135M.

Okamoto and Imai, plus running back Belli and most of this squad, plus getting Cole back by April and a full year of Schlittler, Jasson, Bednar, Duval and eventually Schmidt too, and giving Spencer Jones a peek at the MLB as 4th OF…that feels like a team that could seriously be the best in the AL, and we spend zero prospect talent in the offseason—holding our young chips out to get fresh horses at the trade deadline.

This also means Gil and Warren both end up in the pen or getting traded sometime during the season. Under these circumstances I’d be totally okay with that.