Shota Imanaga is the next Japanese pitcher lined up to sign a big contract. While the free-agent market has moved slowly this winter, Imanaga’s posting window will close next week, adding some urgency to his decision-making process. Jan. 11 is the deadline to close a deal that could wind up being valued at more than $100 million.
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Imanaga, 30, is a 5-foot-10 left-handed pitcher who helped Japan beat Team USA and win last year’s World Baseball Classic. Jim Bowden, a longtime baseball executive and a national writer for The Athletic, identified four finalists in the Imanaga negotiations. But virtually every team needs more pitching and additional reports have mentioned other teams as being in contact with Imanaga’s representatives. Here is the latest:
Chicago Cubs
Jed Hoyer’s front office is keeping Imanaga on the radar and working through various ideas to improve the pitching staff, which would at least involve adding a starting pitcher and two solid relievers. Hoyer, the team’s president of baseball operations, personally scouted Imanaga in September as part of a long-awaited trip to Japan to evaluate players and make more international connections. The Cubs are in the mix, but their deliberate, rational approach to free agency has created questions about their willingness to win bidding wars. This is a team that still hasn’t signed a free-agent player to a major-league contract this offseason. — Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney
Shota Imanaga finalists are the #RedSox #Cubs #Angels #Giants according to sources.
— Jim Bowden⚾️🏈 (@JimBowdenGM) January 5, 2024
San Francisco Giants
The Giants did plenty of scouting work on Imanaga and considered him a worthy fallback position if they were unsuccessful in what they expected to be an aggressive pursuit to sign countryman Yoshinobu Yamamoto. But the Giants viewed Yamamoto, 25, as a unique opportunity given his advanced skill set and age curve, which is why they were willing to bid at the top of the market to acquire him before he expressed a preference for the rival Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Giants might not be so sold on Imanaga to bid at the top of his market, especially now that he’ll reportedly receive offers in excess of $100 million. Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi might have hinted at that on Friday when asked about Imanaga on a conference call to discuss the club’s acquisition of former American League Cy Young Award winner Robbie Ray from the Seattle Mariners.
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“We have had conversations with his representation and there’s still a few things we’re looking at on that side,” Zaidi said. “Wouldn’t want to get more specific than that. Obviously he’s done a nice job (in Japan) and it’s a pretty active free-agent market.”
Even though Ray is recovering from Tommy John surgery and won’t throw a pitch until July, and veteran right-hander Alex Cobb is out till June while recovering from hip surgery, Zaidi made it sound as if the club planned to get through the first half by relying on its young pitching depth.
Zaidi didn’t flatly rule out a run at Imanaga, Blake Snell or Jordan Montgomery. But …
“The ideal outcome is we have younger pitchers in our pipeline step up, take some of the opportunities that we’re gonna have and be able to address it internally,” Zaidi said. — Andrew Baggarly
Boston Red Sox
The Red Sox have done extensive scouting in Japan, and they’ve followed up with additional evaluation of Imanaga in particular. He’s been one of their targets since the start of the offseason, and unsurprisingly, the Red Sox were one of the four Imanaga finalists reported by Jim Bowden on Friday.
People with knowledge of the Red Sox’s plans have said that even after adding one starter (Lucas Giolito) and trading away another (Chris Sale), the team remains in the market for additional rotation upgrades — either via free agency or trade or both — though their preferences are unclear, and their ultimate direction might be a matter of cost and opportunity. It’s possible they could use some of their position player redundancy to trade for a starter, and then backfill their offense through free agency. Or they could simply spend on a mid-rotation upgrade if the price is right.
Imanaga would add a left-hander to a rotation that’s currently made entirely of righties, though chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has said handedness will not be a significant factor. A combination of Imanaga and Giolito would give the Red Sox two of the top 10 free-agent starters on The Athletic’s Big Board, but it would give them none of the top seven, which is perhaps not what the fan base had in mind when chairman Tom Werner promised a full-throttle approach to the offseason. — Chad Jennings
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Los Angeles Angels
In theory, this addition makes sense for the Angels. But his fit for the Angels isn’t a binary question. Of course, adding a high-caliber pitcher is good for any team — particularly an Angels starting staff that struggled last year to the tune of a 4.47 ERA and 1.355 WHIP. They are also low on depth heading into 2024. “It’s definitely a priority,” Angels GM Perry Minasian said in December. “We do need to add pieces to help this club.”
All that said, the Angels don’t seem to have any plan or strategy. They’ve been linked to basically every big free-agent/trade asset this offseason, but haven’t signed or acquired any. They balked at the idea of matching the Dodgers’ offer to Shohei Ohtani, bringing to question just how much they’re willing to invest in a winner. So yes, signing Imanaga would be great. But not without a plan to keep building out this roster. Also adding a Teoscar Hernández or Cody Bellinger to their offseason haul could make an Imanaga acquisition more meaningful. The Angels won 73 games each of the past two years. Their best player just signed elsewhere. Fixing this roster is about more than winning one free-agent battle. — Sam Blum
New York Mets
The Mets want to add another starting pitcher. As it stands, the Mets’ rotation features Kodai Senga, José Quintana, Luis Severino, Adrian Houser and Tylor Megill — expect someone else to join the group at some point. But it’s unlikely that Imanaga fills that need, based on conversations with people familiar with the club’s thinking.
The Mets have kept in touch with Imanaga, but his price tag seems headed toward a figure that they’d rather not pay. In theory, the Mets would have some interest, but they’d probably need his market to drop, especially if it’s anywhere near $100 million. Instead of landing Imanaga or the top pitchers in the market, it’s more likely that the Mets find someone on a one-year or short-term contract in free agency or fill the need via trade. They took a $325 million shot at Yoshinobu Yamamoto and missed. He was their main priority. Since then, they have not been expected to pivot near the top of the market. — Will Sammon
(Photo of Shota Imanaga: Yuki Taguchi / WBCI / MLB Photos via Getty Images)