Right-hander Tatsuya Imai and the Houston Astros have agreed to a $54 million, three-year contract, according to The Associated Press on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Imai gets a $2 million signing bonus and salaries of $16 million this year and $18 million in each of the final two seasons. He can earn an additional $3 million in performance bonuses this year: $1 million each for 80, 90 and 100 innings.<\/p>\n
His 2027 and 2028 salaries would escalate by the amount of performance bonuses earned in 2026, which could raise the deal\u2019s value to $63 million over three years.<\/p>\n
Imai can opt out after the 2026 and 2027 seasons.<\/p>\n
Under the posting agreement between Major League Baseball and Nippon Professional Baseball, a deal must be finalized by 5 p.m. EST Friday.<\/p>\n
Imai receives the third-highest average annual value for a Japanese pitcher entering Major League Baseball behind Yoshinobu Yamamoto\u2019s $27.08 million with the Los Angeles Dodgers in a deal that started in 2024 and Masahiro Tanaka\u2019s $22.14 million with the New York Yankees in a contract that ran from 2014-20.<\/p>\n
A 27-year-old righty, Imai went 10-5 with a 1.92 ERA this season with the Pacific League\u2019s Seibu Lions. He struck out 178 batters in 163 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n
Imai is 58-45 with a 3.15 ERA in eight seasons with Seibu, with 907 strikeouts in 963 2\/3 innings. He is a three-time All-Star.<\/p>\n
Imai pitched eight innings of a combined no-hitter against Fukuoka on April 18. He struck out 17 against Yokohama on June 17, breaking Daisuke Matsuzaka\u2019s previous team record of 16 from 2004.<\/p>\n
Under MLB\u2019s posting agreement with NPB, Seibu will get a posting fee of $9.675 million from the Astros and a supplemental fee of 15% of any earned bonuses, salary escalators and exercised options.<\/p>\n
Find more MLB coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.<\/p>\n
In conclusion, Tatsuya Imai’s contract with the Houston Astros is a significant deal that highlights his impressive career and achievements in Japanese baseball. With a $54 million, three-year contract, Imai is set to make a notable impact in Major League Baseball.<\/p>\n
A: The value of Tatsuya Imai’s contract with the Houston Astros is $54 million over three years.<\/p>\n
A: Imai can earn an additional $3 million in performance bonuses in 2026: $1 million each for 80, 90 and 100 innings.<\/p>\n
A: Yes, Imai can opt out after the 2026 and 2027 seasons.<\/p>\n
A: Seibu will receive a posting fee of $9.675 million from the Astros and a supplemental fee of 15% of any earned bonuses, salary escalators and exercised options.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Introduction to Tatsuya Imai’s Contract Right-hander Tatsuya Imai and the Houston Astros have agreed to a $54 million, three-year contract, according to The Associated Press on Thursday. Imai gets a $2 million signing bonus and salaries of $16 million this year and $18 million in each of the final two seasons. He can earn an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":19838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19836","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dmn-dallas-news-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com\/resizer\/v2\/PFG6SSI4HJGPDACFDMQ742PAH4.jpg?auth=bf619bb932764043bd7fa225b1f5b9c2dc88d7e5b8a6077e9ab7852d16b0a9bf&quality=80&width=1200&height=630&smart=true","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19836"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19836"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19839,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19836\/revisions\/19839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}