[Rome] The Astros are in agreement with Japanese right-hander Tatsuya Imai on a three-year contract, source tells The Athletic. The deal maxes out at $63 million and contains opt outs after every season.

41 comments

1. 

   Get ready to learn trashcan, buddy

2. I just threw up in my mouth

3. Daikin made the call

4. Oh fuck thats so sick.

5. Did they get Okamato too?

6. Telling me we couldn’t do that???

7. Hey, we had dibs!

8. IMAI IS A GENERATIONAL DODGERS HATER

9. Jed must have been out last night a little too late.

10. He doesn’t need to opt out after the final season.

11. The Athletic projected 8 years 190 million for Imai. This is a bit below… even with comparable AAV

    The NPD market is dead this year for whatever reason.

    I’d blame it on the lockout. But Cease and Alonso got paid. Im really curious what the top 5 FA’s get at this point.

    I think Suarez and Valdez could both end up taking those prove it deals as well

12. Three prove it years. Wow a lot of teams aren’t convinced.

13. Great, fantastic.

14. Really happy to get more Asian players on the Astros as a fellow Asian myself. They’ve had plenty of hidden gems in Latin America but aside from a short stint with Yusei I think their last player was Nori Aoki? I’m sure Gurriel did NOT help

15. That’s a lot less than the projections. Now you really gotta wonder why the Giants couldn’t top that

16. Astros out of nowhere

17. Now the Cubs arent even going after the affordable free agents

18. Talk about a surprise. I didn’t even know we were involved here

19. Damn I had Braves hope

20. Does opt out after every season means he has an opportunity to seek improvement on his contract every off season ?

21. Jed what are you doing dawg

22. Wait, no.

23. The Astros have a reputation for developing pitchers, and he gets to opt out whenever he wants.

    This seems like a good deal for Imai to transition to a new league.

24. Hell yeah

25. 

26. This is totally unexpected and also totally awesome.

27. Hey that’s legit af

28. Respect the hate

29. I’m surprised a team like the giants or the cubs couldn’t match that.

    Good for him, but I guess the Astros are hoping he isn’t too good that he opts out next year, but he was gonna do that regardless I guess.

    I didn’t think the Yankees were in on him at all. We’ve given a huge pitching contact every year for the past like 3 years.

30. Wow thats affordable.

31. 

32. I was genuinely surprised when I saw the notif. We haven’t had an Asian player since Kikuchi.

33. Did anyone else think the thumbnail was Luigi

34. The Astros just made the best signing of the off season

35. Fuck

36. Say what you will about the Astros but they do try to win.

    A lot of teams can do what they do but would rather not.

    I wish someone like Crane owned the Guardians.

    Astros have become the new Cardinals. Competitive every year not afraid to make moves.

37. After a few of not addressing starting rotation depth issues, this has been a better offseason for the Astros to take a chance on a bunch of guys with upside instead of hoping a bunch of pitchers return and perform from injuries.

38. Nobody seemed interested in paying the initial high price projections and likely a lot of teams also weren’t interested in giving a player a short deal with player opt-outs each year either. Houston seems like a good fit, barely missed the playoffs last year, for the first time since 2016, and they are pretty good at developing pitchers. Win-win for both parties if he has a good season this year.

39. Oh shit, did not see the Astros coming.

    Also another short term deal for a japanese player this summer.

40. Well he wasn’t wrong about going to a team that hates the dodgers at least

41. Imai: I want to take down the Dodgers

    All of Baseball: That’s good!

    Imai: With the Astros

    All of Baseball: That’s bad!