If the San Francisco Giants are truly in the market for some of the top starters available, Tatsuya Imai needs to be at the top of their list.
A few weeks ago, Imai stated he wants to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers.
From the Giants’ perspective, there certainly isn’t a better player available for them to pursue.
A pitcher who has all the stuff in the world to get hitters out at the highest level, and wants to beat the Dodgers? Sign the Giants up.
There are a lot of other factors to consider, but the Dodgers aspect is an important one.
If he truly doesn’t want to play with the Dodgers, and with players from Japan in the past often signing with California teams because of how much closer it is than the East Coast, the Giants have to feel like they’re the favorite to land him if there’s genuine interest on both sides.
Some seem to believe it’ll happen, including Andrew Tredinnick of NJ.com, who recently predicted that Imai will take a deal with the Giants this winter.
“The Giants get their counter-punch to the Dodgers' beefed-up rotation with their own Japanese fireballer,” he wrote.
It’ll be interesting to see if any East Coast team has an opportunity to land Imai.
On the surface, the New York Yankees and New York Mets would both love a pitcher of his caliber.
Again, because of how far Japan is from New York, that might be a factor, but we’ll see how it plays out over the next few weeks.
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