A top Japanese pitcher's decision looms, with rivals surprisingly emerging as frontrunners over the Cubs. Can Chicago still secure him?
Japanese pitcher Tatusya Imai has less than three days to sign with a Major League team until his posting window closes. The right-hander has until January 2nd at 5 PM ET to accept a contract offer from a team.
For weeks, it was expected that Imai would receive a nice multi-year contract. He is coming off a strong final season in the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) with a 1.92 ERA and 178 strikeouts across 163 ⅔ innings and has the skill set to be a dominant pitcher in the Majors.
However, there appears to be some hesitation from teams on what Imai is actually worth in free agency.
“Meanwhile, evaluators have questions about whether Imai is more of a middle or back-of-the-rotation starter than a budding ace, and how to value the Japanese pitcher’s first major-league contract in that context,” Patrick Mooney of The Athletic wrote in a piece.
While things have been quiet on the Imai front over the past few days, many insiders believed that the Chicago Cubs were still one of the finalists to land the 27-year-old this winter.
The Cubs need a frontline starting pitcher, and they have been very involved in the Japanese market in recent offseasons. The front office has signed both Seiya Suzuki and Shota Imanaga from Japan over the past five years.
Nonetheless, a recent report that came out on Tuesday morning doesn’t appear to view the Cubs as a strong candidate to sign Imai.
According to Yahoo! Sports Japan, the Philadelphia Phillies, the New York Yankees, and the Chicago White Sox are the top three teams that could land the right-hander. The article also detailed that Imai could pursue a three-year deal.
There wasn’t really any mention of the Cubs from the Yahoo! Sports Japan report, and it was really focused on the fact that the White Sox have become leading contenders to land the Japanese star.
With only a few days remaining until his posting window closes, it appears that the market for Imai isn’t as strong as some might have thought. The right-hander will likely not receive that $150+ million deal this offseason.
That could help the Cubs’ chances of landing him.
Although Yahoo! Sports Japan didn’t have any mention of the Cubs in their latest report, this could just be a last-minute strategy by Scott Boras to get teams like the Cubs to up their offers one final time for Imai.
If Imai also decides to take a shorter-term deal instead of a five or six-year deal, that should help the Cubs' chances of signing him even more. Fans know that the front office doesn’t like to invest big money in players, so a three-year deal could help him land with the North Siders.