Phillies don't land Japanese starter Tatsuya Imai, who gets 3-year deal with opt outs

Tatsuya Imai won't be the first Japanese-born player to make his Major League Debut with the Phillies.

The 27-year-old right-handed pitcher is signing with the Houston Astros, according to Jon Heyman of The New York Post. ESPN's Jesse Rogers says it's a three-year deal that includes opt outs after every season. Chandler Rome of The Athletic says that the pact "maxes out at $63 million."

There hadn't been a ton of buzz surrounding Imai, who had until Jan. 2 at 5 p.m. ET to sign with an MLB team after being posted by the Seibu Lions, his Japanese team. In parts of eight seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball — Japan's top league — Imai posted a 3.15 ERA. A lack of an obvious front-runner for him lead to speculation in recent days that the Phillies, in their quest to break into the Japanese market, could swoop in. Ultimately, they didn't. 

Of course, if we knew that Imai was going to receive opt outs in his contract, it would have been easier to conclude that he wouldn't be a Phillie. General manager Preston Mattingly recently revealed that the Phillies organization doesn't include player opt outs in contracts, adding that "we're kind of up front with that with guys." So unless the Phillies were willing to blow by where the market was at and make a five or six-year offer, they weren't going to land Imai. 

Preston Mattingly says the Phillies 'don't do' player opt-out clauses in contracts

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Imai is the second major Japanese player to come off the board this offseason, and the second to sign for quite a bit less than anticipated. Slugger Munetaka Murakami signed a two-year/$34 million deal with the Chicago White Sox in December. 

The top remaining Japanese free agent this offseason is Kazuma Okamoto, a 29-year-old corner infielder who has hit 248 home runs and posted an .882 OPS in 11 NPB seasons. Okamoto has until 5 p.m. ET on Jan. 4 to sign. Unless the Phillies plan to trade Alec Bohm and have Okamoto take over at third base, he probably won't be a fit. 

So it appears that the storyline of the Phillies struggling to attract Japanese talent will last for another year, though it's unclear whether and to what extent Dave Dombrowski and company have been in on the available players this offseason. 

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