The New York Yankees have a solid starting rotation. Luis Gil, Max Fried, Will Warren, and Cam Schlitter finished the 2025 season healthy, and all have a good shot at being in the rotation to kick off the 2026 season. However, Garrit Cole, Carlos Rodon, and Clarke Schmidt are recovering from their respective injuries and are expected to return in 2026.
With so many injuries, it makes sense to add a healthy body to the mix. Tatsuya Imai was posted on Monday, November 10th, 2025. With the clock ticking, the new free agent landed a huge prediction.
Tatsuya Imai Predicted to Sign Eight-Year Deal
Jon Heyman of the New York Post released a new article on the top 40 MLB free agents. Alongside each entry is a contract prediction, as well as any nuggets about potential frontrunners.
In assessing this year’s free agency class, Heyman had this to say.
“There’s no Juan Soto in this free agent market, and certainly no Shohei Ohtani,” Heyman wrote on November 10, 2025. “The list is without an all-time great for the first time in three years, but it does contain a clear No. 1 guy (Kyle Tucker), an additional trio of interesting repeat positional free agents (Pete Alonso, Cody Bellinger and Alex Bregman), a smattering of frontline starters (led by Framber Valdez, Dylan Cease, and, assuming he’s posted, Tatsuya Imai) and a real strength at the back end (Edwin Díaz, Robert Suarez, Ryan Helsley, Raisel Iglesias, Kenley Jansen and more).”
Number two on Heyman’s list is Imai. The scribe predicts that he will be a popular free agent and lists the two frontrunners to land the starter.
“After Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s heroics, this 27-year-old with big stuff and a 2.10 ERA over four years should be popular,” Heyman wrote. “The Yankees like him, and the Dodgers like most Japanese stars, which could be a good start. $200M, 8 years.”
It’s no surprise that the Los Angeles Dodgers could also be in the mix for the potential ace. It helps their case to already boast the likes of Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the rotation.
Tatsuya Imai vs. Yoshinobu Yamamoto
Ryan Garcia of the Fireside Yankees podcast dug into why he believes Imai would be a good target for the organization to consider. For starters, he compared him to other pitchers who have crossed the pond to play in the MLB.
Yamamoto, Kodai Senga, and Shota Imanaga are the three players he compared Imai to. For all four pitchers, he listed their stat lines from their last year in NPB before they came over.
Of the four pitchers, Yamamoto has the best FIP, followed by Imai. For those unfamiliar, FIP is Fielding Independent Pitching. According to the MLB website, FIP is similar to ERA; however, “it focuses solely on the events a pitcher has the most control over — strikeouts, walks, hit-by-pitches and home runs.”
Yamamoto’s FIP is 44, while Imai’s is 66, Senga’s is 69, and Imanaga’s is 74.
Imai is the NPB’s ‘Whiff Master’
In a separate social media post, Garcia highlighted another statistic that should excite Yankees fans at the possibility of Imai joining the team.
“His 32% Whiff% in 2025 was the highest mark ever recorded in a season for a qualified NPB pitcher since this was tracked in 2014,” Garcia wrote on X on November 10th. “Also, the only qualified NPB starter to ever record a Swinging Strike% >= 15%.”
To calculate Whiff, you divide the number of swings and misses by the total number of swings. Once you have that figure, you multiply it by 100 to get a Whiff percentage.
If the Yankees could manage to land the “Whiff Master” (nickname given by me), that could be a game-changer for their rotation.
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