Phillies appear to be the only MLB team mentioned in Japan for Tatsuya Imai, maybe it’s finally happening

Drew Smith
December 9, 2025
Phillies
0 Comments

Every offseason there is one name that slips under the radar until suddenly it doesn’t. This winter, that name might be Tatsuya Imai. And according to a new report in a Japanese newspaper, the Philadelphia Phillies are very much in.

Tatsuya Imai: The Phillies made the front page of a Japanese newspaper.

The Phillies made the front page of a Japanese newspaper. https://t.co/iwqajPa5it pic.twitter.com/r0BbJCHDXQ
— Phillies Tailgate (@PhilsTailgate) December 9, 2025

Quick Note: Shoutout Phillies Tailgate on Twitter. Dude is a BEAST and I’m forever grateful for him for keeping this stuff up to date so I can write about it. Must follow.

Anyways, here’s the quote from Sponichi Annex, via Yahoo! News:

“The Phillies are seriously considering acquiring pitcher Tatsuya Imai (27) from the Seibu Lions via the posting system. The team is short on right-handed starting pitchers and fits their needs.”

That is the only MLB team mentioned in all of Japan so it’s hard to think that this is just some type of freak accident.

I’ve been writing about Tatsuya Imai for months, because everything about him screams “perfect Phillies signing.” The stuff, the mentality, the competitiveness, the market fit. This dude wants to pitch in a real baseball city, not hide out somewhere quiet where nobody cares whether you give up four runs or forty.

Just read this quote Tatsuya Imai gave reporters:

“I want to take them down. Playing together with players like Ohtani, Yamamoto, Sasaki, and others sounds fun, but beating a team like that and becoming world champions would be the most valuable thing in my life.”

It’s time for the Phillies to go all-in on the NPB market to rebuild the 2026 roster

That is Philadelphia energy.

This man wants smoke. He wants the Dodgers. He wants to walk into an East Coast headline factory and own the moment. He is 27 years old coming off one of the filthiest seasons in NPB:

Tatsuya Imai – 2025 with Seibu Lions

24 starts
1.92 ERA
9.8 K/9
2.5 BB/9

The arsenal is ridiculous. He sits 95 to 98 with a low three-quarter slot that makes the baseball disappear until it’s already halfway past you. The slider is a wipeout kill switch. The splitter falls off a cliff. The fastball jumps. It is a three-pitch death combo with frontline upside today.

Drop him into the Phillies rotation tomorrow and he’s a No. 3 with ace potential. No projection needed. The price is a fucking joke too. FanGraphs projects five years, $100 million…. for a 27-year-old with ace stuff. That is theft. You do not hesitate on that number. You sprint to the pen.

The Phillies want their Japanese ace. Imai might finally be the one.

Dave Dombrowski and John Middleton have been trying to land a Japanese star for years. They pushed hard for Yamamoto. They were right there until the Dodgers pulled the Ohtani vortex move.

The money was never the problem.
The desire was never the problem.
The market fit was never the problem.

They just needed the right guy. This is the move that makes the rotation whole again. If the Phillies are going to swing big this winter, Imai Tatsuya might be the cleanest fit in the entire class.

If you want a right-handed hitter, check out Kazuma Okamoto >>