Tatsuya Imai pitches for Samurai Japan against the Netherlands in March 2025. Gene Wang / Getty Images
By The Athletic Staff
Nov. 18, 2025Updated 1:42 pm EST
The top Japanese pitcher in this year’s free-agent class is now available to MLB teams.
27-year-old Tatsuya Imai, who is currently ranked as the No. 10 free agent on The Athletic’s Big Board, has officially been posted for MLB teams, which will be able to negotiate to sign the righty starter beginning Wednesday morning with a window that ends on Jan. 2, 2026.
The 5-foot-11 Imai, who had a 1.92 ERA in 24 starts last season with the Saitama Seibu Lions, doesn’t have fellow countryman Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s high-level stuff or dominance in Nippon Professional Baseball, but Imai is still expected to receive a nine-figure contract from a MLB team this offseason. The Athletic’s Tim Britton projects that Imai will receive an eight-year, $190 million deal, noting that “Imai’s ERA and strikeout rate align well with those of Senga, Yusei Kikuchi, and Hiroki Kuroda before they debuted in MLB. He’s as hard a thrower as anyone who’s made that jump, complementing a fastball in the mid- to upper 90s with a slider, splitter and changeup.”
MLB franchises see Imai, who is represented by agent Scott Boras, as a mid-rotation type, according to a league source. His posting follows that of Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami (ranked No. 17 on The Athletic’s Big Board), whose negotiating window began on Nov. 8.
Nov 18, 2025
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