The Yokohama DeNa Baystars of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball are going to post left-hander Shota Imanaga this offseason, reports Jon Morosi of MLB.com. The southpaw will be eligible to explore opportunities with clubs in Major League Baseball as a free agent, though any club that signs him would owe a posting fee to the Baystars.
Imanaga is a veteran in Japan, having just turned 30 years old on September 1. Over eight seasons, he has tossed 977 innings with a 3.18 earned run average while striking out 24.9% of batters faced and walking 6.9%. He’s been ever better this year, with a 2.72 ERA over 122 1/3 innings, along with a 29.1% strikeout rate and 3.9% walk rate. He also pitched for Japan in the World Baseball Classic earlier this year, allowing two earned runs over six innings.
Here at MLBTR, Imanaga has been featured on all four editions of our NPB Players To Watch series, coming in at #3 in the first edition but #2 on each subsequent update. As noted by MLBTR’s Dai Takegami Podziewski in the first of that series, Imanaga doesn’t have an overpowering fastball but finds success thanks to his command and gets strikeouts with his changeup, which is close to a splitter. He also has a cutter, a curveball and a slider. He signed with the U.S.-based agency Octagon to help talks toward a posting agreement last offseason.
Once Imanaga is formally posted, there will be a 30-day window where MLB clubs can negotiate with his representatives. If a deal is reached, the signing team will also owe money to the Baystars, with that amount being relative to the size of the contract given. Any big league team that signs him would owe the Baystars a fee equal to 20% of the contract’s first $25MM, 17.5% of the next $25MM and 15% of any dollars thereafter. If he does not reach an agreement with an MLB team, he will return to the Baystars for 2024.
When he hits the market, Imanaga will add another interesting arm to a free agent class that is heavy on pitching. Another NPB star, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, is expected to be in the mix, alongside other pitchers like Aaron Nola, Blake Snell, Lucas Giolito, Jordan Montgomery and Sonny Gray, while pitchers like Eduardo Rodriguez and Marcus Stroman have opt-outs and could jump into the mix as well.
Hope he doesn’t turn out to be Kohei Arihara…
For one, Arihara (6.6 K/9) had considerably fewer strikeouts than Imanaga (9.1 K/9) in his NPB career. That being said, Imanaga should likely receive a contract in the Five year $85 million range with a $14.125 million posting fee making a $99.125 million commitment over five years.
Gonna be 30 years old bruv
And? Kodai Senga got Five Years and $75 million heading into his age 30 season in spite of having displayed considerably worse control (3.4 BB/9 vs 2.4 BB/9 for Imanaga) and injury issues throughout his NPB career
so how many guys have we seen get 5@75+ in there 30/1 season get the similar deals with around the same stat line or worse, plus he’s a lefty with a pulse wouldn’t surprise me if he got a little more, gms love there lefties
Yoshinobu is still the big fish, maybe the best pitching option among MLB or foreign combined.
Im waiting for the day Roki Sasaki gets posted…
2026 most likely
Welcome to the Mets Shota.
Would be cool if they got him and Yamamoto. Having three Japanese pitchers in their rotation (with Senga, obvs) would be awesome.
I doubt they go there, they likely want to win a WS.
Steve Cohen will sign two thirds of the FA pitchers this offseason. Some owners never learn to build the farm and their desire to win now never changes.
Yokohama DeNa Baystars To Post Shota Imanaga
Try saying this ten times!!!!
Also,, what i want to know is how
Passion Flower Shirley the Yokohama Butterfly is doing and will she be posted?
hey don’t call me shirley
The most interesting arm is FA is going to be Julio Urias. He will more than likely be suspended. Does anyone touch him with a 10 foot pole? Do the Dodgers let him walk (I would). Does he end up with the Bauer in Asia? Dude just shot himself in the foot.
Why bring up Urias in an article that has nothing to do with him?
The last paragraph of the article is a commentary on other pitchers hitting the market.
Urias is another such pitcher.
Raisin – your reply is very accurate and appropriate.
I’ll add that I noticed immediately that the article failed to include him in the list of names which I found either: (1) oversight or (2) considering him not eligible. A week ago he would have been one of the first 2-3 listed.
Yeah. Those fools should wait until after they retire for all this stuff. Why ruin a career and all earning potential while playing?? Smh
@in seaver we trust
i think a lot has to do with how they were treated growing up, there whole lives they have been catered and given special treatment because of the talents. as they become adults and excel in pro sports they feel like there invincible and they can get away with anything. also social media and everyone having a camera in there pocket doesn’t help either
@SoCalHardBall If I was the Mets GM, I’d offer Julio a one year 10 mil contract with a club option for a second year valued at 14 mil. While I do find what he did horrible (if true), the Yankees have been taking flyers on guys like him for years (Chapman, German). The Mets signed Jose Reyes and kept Jeurys Famila after their incidents. I’d be open to give Bauer the same contract as well. Roberto Osuna would be their second best reliever, I’d sign him as well. I don’t really care about what they did as long as they served their time. If they are productive, let them play. These NFL players have done worse and other than Ray Rice, all have been allowed to come back and no one cares about their incidents
@LFGMets Urias is in a special category because this is the second violation and he was arrested for felony assault, which I believe is the gravest alleged offense against a woman that’s been leveled at any MLB player. If he is found guilty he will be persona non-grata in baseball circles, as toxic as Bauer , if not more so.
@Ignorant Son-of-a-b I don’t think its possible for an MLB player to surpass Felipe Vazquez. With that being said, I still think Urias is going to be fine. Probably will get suspended for half a season at most. Unless what he did was really bad (obviously assaulting a woman is always bad), I don’t see him getting banned from baseball. Not to sound racist but from what I’ve seen, the MLB is a bit more forgiving in these type of situations when it comes to the hispanic players. They believe that this type of stuff is part of the South American culture for some reason. If you look at what Trevor Bauer got compared to what these other guys got banned for, it really seemed like a joke. Its like the MLB has different expectations for these players depending on their nationality. My personal belief is either every punishment should be severe or no punishment (except in cases like Vasquez or Franco (if true))
I hear what you’re saying LFGMets, about this strange difference in how the Hispanic violators are treated vs. the American born in similar situations. What stands out egregiously to me, though, is the Wander Franco case. I am astounded how quietly & hush-hush the whole situation has been handled thus far…I mean completely swept under the rug. Wander? Wander who?? Never heard of him….
Here supposedly was a generational talent signed to a long extension and expected to be the foundation of a Tampa team for the next 10 – 15 years. Seemingly overnight all of that potential & excitement disappeared, poof gone like Roberto Clemente in a plane crash. Except there is nobody mourning Wander Franco. No tears shed. But just for a thought exercise what if Wander Franco wasn’t a Dominican kid plucked from a dusty sandlot and given a lucrative signing bonus at age 16 or 17 or whatever it was,and imagine he was American White Bread drafted Top 10 out of high school. I dunno like a Corbin Carroll or Gunnar Henderson but even better with a projected higher ceiling. Let’s say it was this kind of “all American” foundational player who got caught with multiple under-aged “friends with benefits” on active rotation along with a wifey & kid. I wonder how differently things would be shaking out right now. (Sorry for the verbosity.)
@ignorant son-of-a-b
i think the problem with how mlb treats different ethnicities in mlb imo has a lot to do with there history and trying to over correct there past to show they “changed”. let’s face mlb has a long storied history of being racist from players like cobb and the whole white only players for decades. i would love to use trevor as an example but he’s a special case and i think his ban was more of he pissed off the wrong people in mlb and they were just waiting for him to slip up and hammer him
@Ignorant Son-of-a-b you hit the nail on the head
Will Bauer remain in Japan, too? The temptation is going to be there for GMs. Bauer’s pretty well dominating the league right now. One of the best pitchers in Japan and he’ll also be a free agent from the same team as Imanaga.
Nice. The guy pitched in the WBC and the WBC final against the U.S. I think he still has some work to do to get up to MLB standard, as he only pitched 2 innings against team USA but decent enough for a high pressure situation. Probably not a good spot in NY or LA but could see him on a mid-market team.
Sadly, these guys from Japan almost always go to large markets. That’s why there was a call for an international draft the last CBA, I suspect.
No. The reason for an international draft is so owners can pocket more money. It’s always about the money.
The owners played off about the international draft as being an even ground for all teams to get a chance to get the good players the large market teams get, but luckily the players association didn’t bite.
Yeah, cause an even playing field is not important or anything.
Seattle a large market? Tampa? Milwaukee?
Seattle’s local TV deal allows them to play with the big boys at times. Plus they have one of the best support systems for Japanese players due to their history. I wouldn’t be surprised if Shohei ended up there.
There are always exceptions, as believe it or not, there are Japanese players who do not like the big city just as some guys here do not. Shocking, I know.
@Eighty Raw – Seattle is mid-market both in city size (750k) and metro size (4MM). Population density is high in Seattle at 9k/square mi.
Not sure why you’d immediately tank your own argument by providing examples which are just as ludicrous in the opposite manner.
Milwaukee is pretty small. City 600k, metro 1.5MM.
Tampa Bay’s stadium is actually located in Saint Petersburg 250k population, metro 3.2MM. St. Petersburg is an peninsula across the bay from Tampa. Combined, the cities would be mid-market; however, density for both cities is small market level and the peninsula makes the stadium highly inaccessible. In that way, the stadium forces the Rays into a small market operation.
These older Japanese players wouldn’t be subjected to an international draft. While the owners may a few bucks in a draft system which I doubt because there’s already a bonus system, their primary reason for a international draft was to save specifically Cuban players to being subjected to human traffickers and extremely dangerous boat rides and sleep overs on isolated island.
I get you think a salary cap would benefit the reds and I too was dumb enough several decades ago think that salary caps were a good thing. But as we’ve seen in all the other sports salary caps actually make it harder for smaller markets. You referenced it’s sad that these Japanese players always go to bigger markets. You think any of them are choosing Cincinnati if all the teams are going to pay them relatively the same? Lol. You can’t force players to be in places where they don’t want to be. The reds are always going to be a small market and if you’re a fan you shouldn’t want your team signing any big free agents because every contract turn out terrible and the reds as a smaller market can’t afford to have 20% of their payroll taken up by a good player with a large contract let alone a terrible one with a big contract. They instantly got into trouble once they gave Joey votto that deal. I know it’s hard for fans to figure out that letting go a good player, like they can’t grasp that simple concept because all they look at is the players stats when the contract is the most important.
Joey Votto when he got that deal was a different player, but I have always thought the 10 (and now 12) year contracts are just asking for trouble. I’m sure Jocketty also thought he would get the same ownership support he got in St. Louis too, and didn’t, but that’s a whole different conversation.
I personally wouldn’t give a position player more than five or a pitcher more than three. If you produce, more money for you the next deal we give you because contracts will be higher then. Also, why backload toward the end? Pay out the most up front, or at least make it a bell curve. Always thought paying the most at the end was crazy too.
As far as crazy and the Reds, the two next highest paid next to Votto was Moose (that contract was worse) and Ken Griffey Jr. Yep, Junior gets three million in deferred money per year still until next year. So 2 and 3 on the money list literally got paid to do nothing. At least injured guys played some.
Salary caps…without a floor they don’t work. That’s why the NFLs works fairly well, they have to spend 80% (I believe that is still the figure) of it, ALL TV money is shared. Bad management, well, you can’t stop that as the Bengals showed in the 90s. But you can literally change your team overnight via free agency and the draft which keeps fans engaged.
Exactly why it hasn’t been in MLB. The large markets don’t want to give up their advantage, and guys like Castellini, Fisher and Nutting don’t want to be forced to spend. The players would probably make out more with a floor (spending by all, just the biggest boys capped out from more) but all they hear is cap.
The players have fought for years to not have a cap and no the players wouldn’t make more. There’s decades of evidence in other sports to prove the caps aren’t good for players which ever way you want to slice it.
Heh, Shota and Manga in his name.
Dang, already un-personned Julio Urias on the FA to be list…
Yeah he’s on the to be suspended list instead.
I’m thinking the whole 5-year contract/compensation for him will fall closer to $80m
Pitchers like them, or those exact pitchers?
One of the best things for Shota is that he has Bauer on the Baystars to offer his advice on how to best navigate the free agent market in the MLB and give him candid pros/cons of each city.
Would love Shota with NYY as we always need Leftys, and sigh Yamamoto as well.
Both Imanaga and Yamamoto are on the smaller side for MLB starting pitchers, both listed at 5’10”. Curious how that will impact interest, if at all. Tanaka, Darvish, Ohtani and Nomo, to name several successful MLB starting pitchers who made the transition to MLB, were all 6’2”-6’5”. Even Kuroda was 6’1”.
Certainly height is not a dealbreaker. Stroman is an example of that, but getting downward plane is more a challenge for shorter pitchers, so they need to compensate elsewhere. That said, Pedro Martinez had no difficulty, and regardless of his listed height, I doubt Pedro was more than 5’9”. Yamamoto is regarded as an elite prospect. Imanaga lesser so, but still quite good. Both will be signed. Question is where? It was rumored a couple years back that Yamamoto has always wanted to pitch for the Yankees, and the Yankees have scouted him heavily, but they do that for all players of interest. Overall, they haven’t shown significant signing interest in Japanese pitchers short of the Tanaka level. Do they view Yamamoto that way?
Yankees need starters, especially with Severino being gone most likely at the end of the season. I think Yamamoto ends up with the Yankees, don’t see the Mets making super splashy plays this offseason but then again Cohen may pay premium to accelerate their retooling.
Certain pitching scouting departments (i.e., Astros, Mariners, Rays, Cardinals) put more of a premium on delivery point or arm slot, as opposed to pitcher height. Everyone likes to see the 6’5” lefty that throws 96 though, assuredly.
Pedro Martinez was 5’10” or 5’11”. But thats irrelevant. Pedro was also a superstar talent of freakish proportions. No point in using him as a frame of reference.
@Geofft, If you’re responding to what I wrote, I don’t disagree. Simply noting that pitchers can compensate in other ways. There are certainly other starting pitchers under 6’ in the non-Pedro class. BTW The reason I said Pedro might be 5’9” is based on standing within four feet of him. I’m 6’1”. Pedro was more than two inches shorter. I’ll leave it at that.
Pedro was probably a unique case as you guys mentioned. Nonetheless it’s still a possibility these “shorter” guys can replicate some of Pedro’s success.
Whenever I see a pitcher listed at 5’11” he’s almost assuredly is shorter because they couldn’t even “fake” him to 6′. Teams know the exact height of their players, but what’s reported externally is all the place.
To old
* too
* olde
Verily.
Maybe Pittsburgh Pirates sign him! Hahaha, I said a funny
Now wash your mouth out.
For the record, it’s not DeNa. It’s DeNA, capisco?
I think he’ll get a contract similar to Senga in years and salary. His peripherals are better so he could land around 80m
Anyone remember Hector Olivera?