Tatsuya Imai Market Heating Up as Deadline Looms
On Monday, both Robert Murray of Fanside and Jon Heyman of the New York Post held live streams discussing available free agents including Tatsuya Imai. Both linked the New York Mets to Imai. It was unclear if this was being reported directly from sources or if it was their speculation.
Photo Credit: Kyodo News
Murray described Imai, who is entering his age 28 season, as fitting the type of player the Mets under Stearns typically looks to invest in. As a pitcher at the start of their prime, Imai would not require investing meaningful dollars into the back half of his career. He also brought up David Stearns’ aggressiveness in trying to acquire Yamamoto during the 2024-2025 offseason when discussing the Mets link to Imai. At the time of the livestream he stated that he does not think there is a front runner for Imai.
Jon Heyman also linked the Mets to Imai while mentioning that his understanding is that the report about him having no offers may have come from a mistranslation of what Imai said.
Heyman stated that Imai is currently having zoom meeting with prospective ball clubs and listed the Cubs, Phillies, Yankees and Mets among the teams connected to Imai. At the time of writing on December 30, it is not known if the Mets have held one of those zoom meetings yet.
Per Yakyu Cosmopolitan’s translation of Imai’s interview on TV Asahi, Imai wanted to meet in person with all of the teams that showed interest in him, but his agent Scott Boras recommended narrowing it down to three to four teams. Imai said he thinks that is where they are at now as he holds these zoom calls.
Imai pitched 163.2 innings in Japan during the 2025 season to a 1.92 ERA and 0.892 WHIP. He is known for throwing a fastball with a similar movement profile to Joe Ryan and a slider that breaks arm side similarly to Luis Castillo.
You can read MMO’s free agent profile on Imai here.
Imai does not have the qualifying offer attached so signing him would not cost the Mets any draft picks or international money. He has until January 2 at 5:00 PM EST to sign with a major league team or he has to return to Japan.
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