The Chicago White Sox shocked everybody when they landed Munetaka Murakami days before he had to return to Japan. Now it seems like they may do it again.
According to Yahoo! Sports Japan, while the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies are suitors for Imai, the White Sox are emerging as the obvious choice for NPB superstar pitcher Tatsuya Imai. If that’s the case, Chicago would land two of the three NPB superstars posted from Japan this offseason.
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Fansided’s Cody Williams also weighed in on this, stating that this would be a surprising move, but a push to be competitive after two years of being historically bad.
“Chicago in the wake of last offseason's Garrett Crochet trade and several other moves amid a rebuild in recent years has a young core that appears on the precipice of making far more noise than we've seen from the hapless group in recent years. Murakami is an indication that the front office feels similarly, and Imai would be another notch in that belt as well…Pairing a veteran with upside such as Imai with 2025 All-Star Shane Smith, newcomer Sean Newcomb and a bevy of other intriguing young arms would be another push to be at least moderately competitive in Chicago. Given the futility of recent years, that's surprising to some degree — but it's also good for White Sox fans that it appears the franchise is ready to make a push at this point, one clearly centered on top Japanese talent,” Williams wrote.
In eight NPB seasons, Tatsuya has a record of 58-45, an ERA of 3.15, 907 Ks, and a WHIP of 1.267 over 963 innings pitched. As Williams said, pairing him up with Shane Smith and the others might actually give Chicago a decent starting rotation.
If the White Sox do land him, they’ll probably get him on a deep discount as they did with Murakami, too. Imai’s posting ends in a couple of days, so he doesn’t have much leeway on negotiations.
Hopefully, the White Sox make an offer soon and shock the MLB.
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