A major offseason domino has fallen on New Year’s Day, with NPB star Tatsuya Imai signing a three-year deal with the Houston Astros worth a guaranteed $54 million. Incentives can run the deal up to a maximum of $63 million. Imai also has the ability to opt out after each of the first two seasons of the contract.
This will surely come as a disappointment to Yankees fans who were holding out hope that the Yankees would ink Imai. After sounding engaged during the earlier stages in Imai’s posting window,
New York didn’t seem to be tightly connected to the right-hander as talks intensified. The Cubs, Phillies, and Mets were all also rumored as interested parties at various points, with the Astros ultimately emerging as the surprise winner of the sweepstakes.
Jon Heyman reports that Imai can earn an extra $1 million after passing 80, 90, and 100 innings in 2026, which would bring his salary to $21 million. In an interesting wrinkle, if Imai hits those incentives in 2026, his base salary in 2027 and 2028 will also escalate to $21 million, meaning he can guarantee himself $63 million by exceeding 100 innings in 2026.
It’s an interesting agreement in its totality, with Imai reportedly turning down deals that would’ve netted him a greater overall guarantee but over more years, instead opting to give himself the chance to hit the market again if he excels stateside. It indicates that Imai has more belief in himself right now than the league does; that Imai put pen to paper for $54 million after most projections expected him to net well over $100 million would suggest that most teams don’t see him as a front-line starter in MLB, at least not yet. The Yankees would appear to be one of those teams.
