{"id":502282,"date":"2026-01-02T02:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T02:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/502282\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T02:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T02:08:11","slug":"tatsuya-imai-signs-with-astros-as-phillies-pivot-rotation-plans-nbc-sports-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/502282\/","title":{"rendered":"Tatsuya Imai signs with Astros as Phillies pivot rotation plans \u2013 NBC Sports Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Japanese right-hander Tatsuya Imai has agreed to terms on a three-year deal with the Houston Astros, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JonHeyman\/status\/2006773005922500966?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">Jon Heyman of the New York Post<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>This closes the door on a potential Phillies addition that had gained traction recently.<\/p>\n<p>Imai, 27, spent eight seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball with the Seibu Lions, compiling a 3.15 ERA across 159 appearances. He was coming off a breakout 2025 season, posting a 1.92 ERA in 24 starts with 178 strikeouts over 163 2\/3 innings, while significantly improving his command. His WHIP was a career-best at 0.89.<\/p>\n<p>His contract with Houston includes opt-outs after each season with an average annual value of $18 million, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JonHeyman\/status\/2006776391661138017?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">with a number of incentives<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Phillies were among the teams linked to Imai as his posting window neared its Friday deadline, but Philadelphia ultimately did not land the right-hander.<\/p>\n<p>Missing out on Imai keeps the club\u2019s rotation picture largely unchanged \u2014 and places added emphasis on its internal decisions. <\/p>\n<p>The Phillies already have significant money, just over $102 million, committed to starting pitching, with Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Taijuan Walker and Cristopher S\u00e1nchez all on multi-year deals, plus Jes\u00fas Luzardo in his final year of arbitration.<\/p>\n<p>This move, though, keeps the door open for a reunion with southpaw Ranger Su\u00e1rez.<\/p>\n<p>Su\u00e1rez, who will also carry a hefty price tag in free agency, remains an option for Philadelphia to reinforce its rotation without adding an external arm. The club&#8217;s top pitching prospect, Andrew Painter, will have the opportunity to compete for a rotation spot in spring training.<\/p>\n<p>With Wheeler\u2019s availability uncertain early next season and the club already pushing luxury-tax thresholds, a reunion with Su\u00e1rez may still be unlikely, but it would provide continuity to one of the best rotations in the game.<\/p>\n<p>For now, the Phillies will continue monitoring the starting pitching market. Whether that results in renewed talks with Su\u00e1rez or they stand pat, Imai\u2019s decision elsewhere narrows the options.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japanese right-hander Tatsuya Imai has agreed to terms on a three-year deal with the Houston Astros, according to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,16702],"class_list":{"0":"post-502282","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-phillies-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115823070719370565","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}