Shota Imanaga, a left-handed pitcher with Japan’s Yokohama Bay Stars, is predicted to be “posted” on Monday for Major League Baseball consideration, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Once Imanaga is formally posted, he’s going to have up to 45 days to negotiate with MLB teams.
Imanaga, 30, has posted a 2.96 ERA and a three.93 strikeout-to-walk ratio in additional than 1,120 profession innings within the Nippon Professional Baseball league. CBS Sports lately ranked him because the Forty second-best loose agent to be had this wintry weather. Here’s what we wrote on the time:
Imanaga, up to now a part of the Yokohama DeNA BayStars rotation, loves his low-90s fastball. He threw it round 60% of the time ultimate season, the entire whilst posting a utilization price above 15% on only one different providing, his slider. Imanaga is based on coercing outside-the-zone swings on his heater, one thing he did to nice impact in Japan. It’s to be noticed if their American opposite numbers give pursuit as incessantly. Imanaga generated shut to 40% whiffs on his slider, and he would possibly want to stability his arsenal extra to be efficient as a MLB starter.
The posting machine is largely MLB’s model of the switch portal for NPB and Korea Baseball Organization avid gamers. Players who don’t qualify for outright loose company can be “posted” through their international groups. Those groups, in flip, obtain a posting rate based totally on the participant’s MLB settlement.
Here’s how the posting rate tiers spoil down:
- Contract value lower than $25 million: 20% of contract price
- Contract value $25 million to $50 million: $5 million plus 17.5% of quantity over $25 million
- Contract value greater than $50 million: $9.275 million plus 15% of quantity over $50 million
Imanaga is one among 3 top-50 loose brokers most likely to be posted this wintry weather, becoming a member of fellow Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Korean outfielder Jung Hoo Lee. It’s unclear when, precisely, Yamamoto and Lee will be posted.