Tatsuya Imai: I Want to Beat the Dodgers

During a recent television interview in Japan, recently-posted free agent RHP Tatsuya Imai made three things clear about his desire to play in MLB, and slight indication to where he may sign.

Note: The original interview was done in Japanese and has since been translated.

The most notable part of the interview was Imai’s take on the Dodgers when asked if he’s rather join the team or take them down: “I want to take them down. Playing together with players like Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki of course sounds fun, but I think beating a team like that and becoming world champions would be the most valuable thing in my life.”

Not only does Imai have high ambitions about being crowned a world champion, but he wants to join a team that is elite and a World Series contender. While this narrows his sights a bit, the final thing he made clear was that he wanted to be the only Japanese player on his team.

While this isn’t uncommon for some Japanese players, others have made it known they have no preference or don’t mind joining an organization with another Japanese-player. When the Mets signed Kodai Senga, he had no preference if he joined a team with a fellow Japanese star.

Of course, this narrows down Imai’s playing field. While the Mets have Senga, who has pitched to a 3.00 ERA and a 1.246 WHIP across three seasons and 285 innings pitched. The Mets have discussed Senga as a trade candidate this season and there has reportedly been a lot of interest in trading for him. Senga’s contract runs through the 2027 season.

The Dodgers of course have the trio of Ohtani, Yamamoto and Sasaki, while the Cubs have OF Seiya Suzuki and returning SP Shota Imanaga (both FA after 2026). The Red Sox roster OF/DH Masataka Yoshida (contract expires 2027), and SP Yusei Kikuchi will enter the second-year of a three-year deal with the Angels. San Diego has a duo of Japanese-born players in Yu Darvish, who will miss the 2026 season after undergoing internal brace surgery for a torn UCL (his contract expires in 2028), and RP Yuki Matsui, who has a player option for 2028.

1B/3B Munetaka Murakami, 1B/3B Kazuma Okamoto, RHP Kona Takahashi and RHP Tomoyuki Sugano headline the Japanese free agent class.

Imai was posted on November 19 and has until January 2 to sign with a MLB team.

The post Tatsuya Imai: I Want to Beat the Dodgers appeared first on Metsmerized Online.