Red Sox fans are plenty familiar with most of the big names on this year’s free agent market. Alex Bregman is coming off an All-Star season in Boston, Kyle Schwarber played for half a season with the Red Sox in 2021, and guys like Pete Alonso, Kyle Tucker and Framber Valdez have ranked among the game’s best for years now.
But as we’ve seen over the years, great talent can come from anywhere.
This winter a number of Japanese standouts are set to make the jump to Major League Baseball, and three in particular are expected to make an immediate impact upon their arrival. These players aren’t household names yet, but here’s everything Red Sox fans will need to know about what they bring to the table.
Tatsuya Imai, RHP
Standing at 5-foot-11, 154 pounds, Imai is not an imposing presence on the mound. Yet despite his stature, he’s managed to post gargantuan numbers in Japan.
The 27-year-old right-hander is coming off an outstanding season in which he posted a career-best 1.92 ERA with 178 strikeouts in 163.2 innings. He’s had four consecutive seasons with a sub-2.50 ERA and owns a career 3.15 mark in eight professional seasons. He also hardly walks anyone, boasting a 7% walk rate for 2025 after allowing only 45 free passes.
According to MLB.com’s David Adler, Imai owns a six-pitch arsenal and leans most heavily on his mid-90s fastball and nasty slider, which boasts a 53% whiff rate against righties and a 39% whiff rate against lefties. He also throws a changeup, a splitter, a curveball and something called a “vulcan change,” which features a grip similar to the greeting used by Star Trek’s Spock.
Imai has also reportedly dialed up his fastball to 100 mph on occasion, so it stands to reason his stuff should translate to the majors just fine.
Being somewhat young compared to most free agent pitchers, Imai is expected to land one of the largest deals of any free agent pitcher this winter. ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel projects Imai will land a deal in the ballpark of six years, $135 million, plus a $22.125 million posting fee, which ranks fifth overall on his list.
Munetaka Murakami, 1B/3B
In terms of pure power, Murakami is the best Japanese slugger to come to MLB since Hideki Matsui over 20 years ago.
The corner infielder has posted monster numbers ever since he debuted in NPB as an 18-year-old in 2018, hitting 246 home runs in eight professional seasons. In 2022, he broke Sadaharu Oh’s 58-year-old record for the most homers in a single season by a Japanese-born player when he crushed 56 in 141 games, and this past season he hit 22 home runs despite being limited to 56 games due to an oblique injury.
According to Yakyu Cosmopolitan, an outlet that covers Japanese baseball, Murakami posted a maximum exit velocity of 116.5 mph this past season, which would rank right near the top of the MLB leaderboard. And still only 25 years old, the left-handed slugger hasn’t even reached his prime yet.
But despite his youth and his outstanding metrics, Murakami has a major red flag: his strikeout rate.
Even by power-hitter standards, Murakami strikes out a lot. In 2024, his last full season, Murakami struck out 180 times in 610 plate appearances, which translates to a 29.5% strikeout rate. To put that into perspective, the MLB average for strikeout rate is 22.6%, and once stateside Murakami will encounter much better stuff than he’s used to seeing in NPB.
If Murakami isn’t able to improve his contact rate, there’s a chance he could get eaten alive by big league pitchers. But if he’s able to consistently get his bat on the ball, his potential upside is through the roof.
ESPN projects Murakami to sign for around five years, $80 million, plus a $13.875 million posting fee.
Kazuma Okamoto, 1B/3B
Where Murakami profiles as more high-risk, high-reward, Okamoto projects as more of a sure thing.
The 29-year-old slugger is a six-time NPB All-Star who has hit 248 home runs in 11 professional seasons dating back to 2015. That includes six consecutive seasons with 30 or more home runs between 2018-23, and this past season he batted .327 with 15 homers and a 1.014 OPS despite being limited to 69 games due to an elbow injury.
The right-handed Okamoto doesn’t usually hit for that high an average, but his career .277 average, .882 OPS, 17.7% strikeout rate and 10.7% walk rate are all encouraging marks. He will face the same questions about his ability to handle higher velocity as Murakami, but plenty of Japanese position players with solid contact skills have successfully made the adjustment.
Okamoto is generally regarded as a superior defensive player as well who is more likely to stick at third base rather than shift to first, and though he may not have Murakami’s superstar potential, he should be a quality big league player who could provide an immediate boost to a team in need of infield help.
With a projected contract of three years, $36 million plus a $6.925 million posting fee, Okamoto might be an especially good option for a medium to small market club.
AloJapan.com