He’s Shota Imanaga, and he’s not that Japanese pitcher who’s going to be posted this offseason, but the other one. Call him Saliere to Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s Mozart, or (and let’s all hope this doesn’t come to pass) Kei Igawa to Yamamoto’s Dice-K.
Is he any good?
The 30-year-old Imanaga has been one of the best pitchers in Japan for years. He’s a control artist, maintaining a walk rate below 4% last season, but he strikes out plenty of hitters, too, including Paul Goldschmidt and Cedric Mullins during his two-inning stint against the United States in the championship game of this year’s World Baseball Classic.