Three more prominent Japanese players to be posted this winter

[Bertz]

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/46139027/2025-mlb-free-agency-offseason-early-intel-contracts-schwarber-tucker-imai-bregman-alonso

Tatsuya Imai

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Imai, 27, is the most anonymous of the group -- and, according to scouts who have watched him pitch this year, perhaps the most intriguing. His talent belies his wispy 5-foot-11, 154-pound frame. He is the hardest-throwing starter in Japan, with a fastball that sits at 95 mph and tops out at 99. With a vicious slider, a changeup, a splitter, a curveball and a sinker he picked up this season, Imai has the sort of pitch mix that teams covet.

Munetaka Murakami

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Murakami wanted to come to MLB last year but was not 25 years old and thus would have been subject to signing as an international amateur free agent, with a ceiling of around a $10 million payday. Now 25, he will likely be posted by the Yakult Swallows and has been scouted in person this season by New York Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns and San Diego Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller, the latter of whom saw Murakami whack three home runs for the Swallows on Saturday (and was later at Imai's gem, too).

In limited playing time this season due to injury, the 6-foot-2, 213-pound Murakami has displayed his prodigious left-handed power. In a league where there's a home run every 60 plate appearances, Murakami has hit 15 in 138 -- one every 9.2 times up. Three years ago, Murakami smashed 56 homers, surpassing Sadaharu Oh's single-season home run record that had stood since 1964. For all the questions about Murakami's game -- he strikes out too much and he might need to shift to first base or a corner outfield spot -- the power is transoceanic.

 

Kazuma Okamoto

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The 29-year-old Okamoto has been NPB's most consistent power hitter since joining the Yomiuri Giants full-time in 2018. While a left elbow injury sustained in a collision playing first base -- where, like Murakami, he could wind up -- sidelined him for 3½ months, Okamoto is leading NPB with a .314 batting average with nearly as many walks (21) as strikeouts (23) and 11 home runs in 201 plate appearances. He is regarded by evaluators as the biggest question mark to make the leap, and he's in line for a shorter-term deal than the others, but a contract for $50 million-plus is plenty realistic, especially with a September that proves his elbow healed.

 

[JBears79]

No interest in any of them. Murakami is gonna flame out of the pros big time. He strikes out way too much. MLB pitching is gonna eat him alive.