It may be a new year, but as we enter 2026, the Philadelphia Phillies just put their fans through a familiar test of faith with another failed offseason pursuit of a star Japanese player. Any hope that fans might have had about their chances of landing right-hander Tatsuya Imai ahead of his negotiating window closing was quickly squashed on New Year's Day.
The hope, which always comes with a healthy dose of skepticism, was replaced on Thursday by dejection after news broke that Imai reportedly agreed to a three-year, $54 million deal with the Houston Astros. With an innings incentive, he could earn up to $63 million, or $21 million per year.
We think the Phillies front office was involved in Imai's posting as he looked to make the jump to Major League Baseball. At least to some degree.
Phillies fans hopeful of landing Tatsuya Imai should have expected this inevitably obvious outcome
Despite routinely being mentioned as a team rumored to be interested in signing what would be their first player directly from Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski operates in such a cloud of secrecy that we don't really know if they made an offer to Imai. According to MLB.com's Brian McTaggart, Imai had longer-term offers with lower annual salaries on the table.
Regardless, Phillies fans were hoping that the lack of actual news about the Phillies' involvement with Imai's camp would result in another surprise move. Instead, nothing. Just another wasted opportunity to get their foot in the door of the Asian baseball market.
It brought back memories of two winters ago when they were heavily in pursuit of Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The Phillies actually made the recent World Series MVP a richer offer than the Los Angeles Dodgers, only to be snubbed as Yamamoto made his way to the West Coast.
What makes this feel even worse is that it genuinely felt like Imai was the perfect player with whom the Phillies could make their first NPB splash. He didn't want to play for the Dodgers (a small miracle in its own right), instead talking about taking down the defending World Series champions. As a perennial contender, the Phillies seemed like they'd be high on Imai's list.
Yes, the Phillies have payroll constraints. But they need to be willing to spend more if they truly want to sign one of these international stars.
They continually tell us that they are growing their presence in Japan and Korea in an effort to start a pipeline of players to Philadelphia. Whatever Dombrowski and his group are doing to woo Japanese ball players, it's not working.
It's another offseason and another lesson learned, albeit the same one, for Phillies fans.