Definitely didn’t see this one coming. Smart move on his part though. If all goes well, he’ll end up getting paid by another team next season after using the Astros pitching staff to help maximize his success.
Sorry - out of the loop here / is he good ? Yes —> what is his potential ? What MLB pitcher can he be likened to? Opt outs? Sounds like he’ll be gone in a year if he’s good and will stick around if he sux
$21M/yr for a guy they clearly think is going to be a ToR SP is a great deal. The opt outs add risk to balance it out. But if you trust the Astros pitching analysis this looks like a good signing.
Our rotation could be special this year. Amazing work by Brown. No guarantee it pans out, but it's a good gamble.
he's really good / he's really bad / he's okay from espn: Imai has made great progress with his command over the past few seasons, taking his walks per nine innings from 5.1 in 2022 to 2.5 in 2025. Imai isn't just a touch-and-feel type, with his fastball sitting between 93 and 97 mph and hitting 99 mph. Imai has also been effective even when his walk rates were higher, posting an ERA under 3.00 for the past four seasons in NPB. ... Imai's slider doesn't "slide," with arm-side movement rather than the typical glove-side movement. But he performed the pitch well in 2025, drawing better-than-average outcomes of a 45% miss rate and a .212 expected wOBA. Yesavage, the Toronto Blue Jays' rookie, has a slider with this unusual shape and relies on a splitter as his best off-speed pitch, which is also true of Imai. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/47472235/tatsuya-imai-deal-astros-worth-60m-sources-say
