The Los Angeles Dodgers have become a common landing spot recently for Nippon Professional Baseball players making the jump to Major League Baseball.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shohei Ohtani and Rōki Sasaki all play in Los Angeles now, and the allure of playing alongside fellow Japanese players is definitely a selling point in free agency. However, Japanese pitcher Tatsuya Imai apparently does not want to play for the Dodgers. Imai was posted on Nov. 18 and is one of the best free agents available this winter.

Imai told former Boston Red Sox star Daisuke Matsuzaka on the show, “Hodo Station,” that he would rather not join the Dodgers superteam alongside other Japanese superstars.

“Of course, I’d enjoy playing alongside Ohtani, Yamamoto and Sasaki,” Imai told Matsuzaka, according to The Athletic, “But winning against a team like that and becoming a world champion would be the most valuable thing in my life. If anything, I’d rather take them down.”

Imai did not play in the 2023 World Baseball Classic with Ohtani, Yamamoto and Sasaki. However, the 28-year-old just put together a dominant season in Japan. He had a 1.92 ERA over 163 2/3 innings. He notched 178 strikeouts, five complete games and three shutouts for the Saitama Seibu Lions.

Moving from Japan to the United States is not an easy transition, and having other players from Japan on the same team could be seen as a benefit. Sasaki and Yamamoto both joined the Dodgers, knowing that at least one of their Samurai Japan teammates would be in Los Angeles. However, Imai does not want to lean on his countreymen as much.

“If there were another Japanese player on the same team, I could just ask them about anything, right?” Imai told Matsuzaka. “But that’s actually not what I’m looking for. In a way, I want to experience that sense of survival. When I come face-to-face with cultural differences, I want to see how I can overcome them on my own — that’s part of what I’m excited about.”

Imai wants to help dethrone the Dodgers and could be a major asset to any team. The fact that he is not making the Dodgers his top choice means that any team willing to pay him has a real chance to land him.

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