Tatsuya Imai to the Astros

[Dfan25]

If Imai signs for his 6 year 150 million projection , they would have to pay his Japanese team around 25 million , I read 

Edited December 4, 2025 by Dfan25

[Dfan25]

Also , Imai will be visiting a few select teams after the winter meetings 

[CubinNY]

2 hours ago, Dfan25 said:

If Imai signs for his 6 year 150 million projection , they would have to pay his Japanese team around 25 million , I read 

Bruce is now busily wiping Tom and Jed's ass juice from his nose. 

Edited December 4, 2025 by CubinNY

[Bertz]

A couple things on Imai that have been rolling around in my head

- The Imai rumor mill seems to be following the same trajectory as the Shota Imanaga one from two years ago.  Whenever he's written about broadly it's profuse with praise, whenever a specific team is talked about it's like "eh we're not huge fans" or "eh we don't have the cash"

- Jeff Passan said that Imai might sign at the winter meetings, but generally with these high profile imports they sign a few days before their posting window closes.  I mentioned a few days ago that would suck because the FA SP market is expected to pop off over the next week.  So I like seeing Levine mention trades because it does feel like if you're Jed timing probably dictates you need to sign a non Imai SP next week or juggle him against trade alternatives as we approach the new year

- Ken Rosenthal's notes article this morning, primarily about Teo Hernandez and Imai, was co-written with Patrick Mooney.  This made me raise an eyebrow especially after the Cubs were barely talked about

- One of the Athletic podcasts after the GM meetings stuck with me.  They were talking about how different the vibes were and made a comment like "and hell Jed's actually talking to Scott Boras this year".  Boras' roster this winter is mostly bats, with Cease, Gallen, and Imai as the main exceptions

Nothing groundbreaking, just stuff that's catching my eye.

[ILMindState]

I predict an article will release around Jan 10th

"Cubs were one of the finalists and showed heavy interest on Imai but ultimately didn't want to go to X amount of dollars and/or years"

[Tryptamine]

Honestly I don't even want to hear about top tier free agents until Jed actually lands one. The closest to that was Dansby and more people than not had Dansby as the 4th best shortstop available in that FA class. Yes, I'm aware it worked out favorably.

[BKHoo]

On 11/26/2025 at 11:58 AM, chibears55 said:

There a chance he might consider the Cubs still, with Both Imanaga and Suzuki with just 1 year left to play. He'll be the only Japanese player on roster after this season. 

Question is, if he's that adamant about being the only Japanese born player, would Hoyer want him knowing he'd have to agree to not try and add any players in the future while Imai with the team 

I feel like his comments were more of a joke, but let's see where he lands up.  I keep hearing SF.

[Dfan25]

There’s some noise coming out of a Japan about the Yankees interest in Imai . 2 reports in the last 24 linking them . When does Hoyer drop out of the bidding ? When it reaches 23 on AAV ?   
 

Only positive is if Imai goes to NYY , takes them out on King , but Kings market seems robust as well .

Edited December 13, 2025 by Dfan25

[Rcal10]

4 minutes ago, Dfan25 said:

There’s some noise coming out of a Japan about the Yankees interest in Imai . 2 reports in the last 24 linking them . When does Hoyer drop out of the bidding ? When it reaches 23 on AAV ?   
 

Only positive is if Imai goes to NYY , takes them out on King , but Kings market seems robust as well .

Cubs need to land one of those two or have a trade for a pitcher ready to go.  

[WhyCantWeWin]

3 hours ago, Dfan25 said:

There’s some noise coming out of a Japan about the Yankees interest in Imai . 2 reports in the last 24 linking them . When does Hoyer drop out of the bidding ? When it reaches 23 on AAV ?   
 

Only positive is if Imai goes to NYY , takes them out on King , but Kings market seems robust as well .

When it reaches a guaranteed third year 

[Jason Ross]

3 hours ago, Dfan25 said:

There’s some noise coming out of a Japan about the Yankees interest in Imai . 2 reports in the last 24 linking them . When does Hoyer drop out of the bidding ? When it reaches 23 on AAV ?   
 

Only positive is if Imai goes to NYY , takes them out on King , but Kings market seems robust as well .

I think the AAV isn't the issue. They pay AAV, they get nervous on years. 

Now, the Cubs were reportedly in on Cease until $200m. That means at least 6 years for a 30 year old arm. Imai is 27. I could see them going 7 here if they really like him. 

[Hot Sauce]

5 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

I think the AAV isn't the issue. They pay AAV, they get nervous on years. 

Now, the Cubs were reportedly in on Cease until $200m. That means at least 6 years for a 30 year old arm. Imai is 27. I could see them going 7 here if they really like him. 

I can't be the only one thankful the Cubs stayed away from that Cease deal.

[Jason Ross]

Just now, Hot Sauce said:

I can't be the only one thankful the Cubs stayed away from that Cease deal.

I'd have done that every day and twice on Sunday. 

That said, some recent data in Imai has be thinking, depending on how you evaluate Imai, that Imai may be as good if not a bit better. It requires a strong eval on him, but think it's possible. 

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

I'd have done that every day and twice on Sunday. 

That said, some recent data in Imai has be thinking, depending on how you evaluate Imai, that Imai may be as good if not a bit better. It requires a strong eval on him, but think it's possible. 

I disagree. I'd rather have the stability of Cease every day rather than someone whose name I am not sure of and who I'm hesitant on bringing up to the team.

--Oh, wait. Doesn't he have to pitch popups to be good? 🤣

Can I see the "strong eval?" It has "be" [sic] thinking that the projections at this point are just inherently iffy.

[Bertz]

2 minutes ago, The Cubs Dude said:

I disagree. I'd rather have the stability of Cease every day rather than someone whose name I am not sure of and who I'm hesitant on bringing up to the team.

--Oh, wait. Doesn't he have to pitch popups to be good? 🤣

Can I see the "strong eval?" It has "be" [sic] thinking that the projections at this point are just inherently iffy.

People who actually write their own posts sometimes have typos

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, Bertz said:

People who actually write their own posts sometimes have typos

Maybe he's writing on his phone, maybe he's not, but I type faster and am able to make my posts without any typos. His analysis, as I said, was just bad.

You and Jason (and formerly Derwood) have attacked me (you) or provided me with pseudo-friendship designed to make me feel worse for who I am (Jason) by inserting a tangential comment about Napoleon because he believed I exhibited classic symptoms of ASD. And if I type a word too fast, I have an automatic "algorithm" (a grammar checker) than underlines the red and the blue so that I chan change it. I really don't get why you're attacking me based on this.

And AI doesn't italicize--or it doesn't transpose the italics between posts, so then I would have to manually italicize everything from the post. 

I really invite you to check every post I've made with an AI checker, since you seem to need to know what it is at work (welcome to the real world, LOL). And I wouldn't be wasting my time copying and pasting AI, because I have a life and school and everything. So if you, @Jason Ross, and @Rex Buckingham(and funnily, that IAB user) want to waste their time playing your mind games on me (ironically supplemented, not by you specifically, with pretentious articles with bogus analysis), so be it. If you want a guy to get back into baseball after a multi-year hiatus, maybe you should be respectful to him. 

Anyway, how do you insert an image? I would really like to prove that I'm not AI.

Edited December 13, 2025 by The Cubs Dude

[Derwood]

2 minutes ago, The Cubs Dude said:

And if I type a word too fast, I have an automatic "algorithm" (a grammar checker) than underlines the red and the blue so that I chan change it. 

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Derwood said:

It was deliberate. I was seeing if @Bertz could see it first!!!

Not something ChatGPT would be smart enough to do.

Edited December 13, 2025 by The Cubs Dude

[javy knows my name]

14 minutes ago, The Cubs Dude said:

You and Jason (and formerly Derwood) have attacked me (you) or provided me with pseudo-friendship designed to make me feel worse for who I am (Jason) by inserting a tangential comment about Napoleon because he believed I exhibited classic symptoms of ASD.

Hahahaha

[Bertz]

12 minutes ago, The Cubs Dude said:

And I wouldn't be wasting my time copying and pasting AI, because I have a life and school and everything.

I shouldn't make the easy joke about the former but regarding the latter I do find it interesting how much you posted during the day this week.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, javy knows my name said:

Hahahaha

What's the Hahahaa about? Me, Bertz, or David--er, I mean Jason?

Edited December 13, 2025 by The Cubs Dude

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, Bertz said:

I shouldn't make the easy joke about the former but regarding the latter I do find it interesting how much you posted during the day this week.

There are only two classes that I don't understand: AP Precalculus and Honors Chem I have a 94 in the former and a 91 in the latter, which is lower than my others, and they sometimes get confusing because the math sometimes makes no sense and the science teacher doesn't teach. Otherwise, I don't pay attention. Basically, we have a system where we do Days 1, 2, 3, and 4: Day 1 is 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, Day 2 is 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, etc. I have 8 classes: AP Precalc, Honors American Lit, AP Gov, AP World, AP Seminar, Lifestyle Fitness I, Honors Chemistry, and Personal Financial Literacy.

Our school doesn't care about Chromebook usage so I just blabber on here and on other political forums unless I'm actually studying for a test. So I am usually on druing the day and the week, because I can manage with my GPA.

Edited December 13, 2025 by The Cubs Dude

[Bobson Dugnutt]

This AI bot is turning out to be a real jerk.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Bobson Dugnutt said:

This AI bot is turning out to be a real jerk.

 I'm only not going to be mad because you're mad funny.

I'm actually somehow enjoying my time on here, I guess, because on other forums, the AI allegations were worse. 

And I'm only being a jerk because Jason and Bertz (to an extent) were being jerks first by either implicitly assuming my mental conditions or accusing me of being AI. 

Thank you, Mr. Dugnutt.

And if I was a bot, I wouldn't have been able to sign up in the first place due to that one question about the color barrier I had to respond to.

Edited December 13, 2025 by The Cubs Dude

[Bertz]

10 minutes ago, The Cubs Dude said:

So I am usually on druing the day and the week, because I can manage with my GPA.

[Sic]

Funny what happens when you have to write about a subject that ChatGPT doesn't have purview into