FILE – Japan’s Munetaka Murakami (55) hits a home run during the second inning a World Baseball Classic game against the United States, Tuesday, March 21, 2023, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier, File)
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We’ve gotten accustomed to having a big superstar pitcher jump to MLB from Asia in the last two years, first with Yoshinobu Yamamoto and then with Roki Sasaki. There might not be a player who can have that kind of impact, but there are four prominent players coming over this offseason.
Munetaka Murakami
Corner infielder Munetaka Murakami will draw the biggest headlines because there isn’t a ballpark on any continent that can contain his immense power. In eight years in Japan playing for the Yakult Swallows, he has 246 home runs. He set a record for the most ever by a Japanese-born player in an NPB season with 56 blasts in 2022. Last year at age 25, he fought through a myriad of injuries and hit .273/.379/.663 with 22 home runs in 56 games.
Despite his incredible power and gaudy stats, there’s high bust potential if he signs a massive contract. Even though most of the pitchers he faces in Japan have inferior stuff to MLB hurlers, he makes less contact than almost any successful hitter in MLB. Any team that sings him is going to have to project significant improvements in his contact ability without curtailing his power. Otherwise, he’ll strike out far too much to be playable, especially since he’s almost definitely a first baseman/designated hitter.
Kazuma Okamoto
Kazuma Okamoto could ostensibly have a similar market to Murakami’s, but he’s a lot safer with less upside. He has played 11 seasons for the Yomiuri Giants as a corner infielder, but unlike his counterpart, he should be playable at third base in MLB. He blasted 27-41 home runs every year from 2018-2024. An elbow problem limited him to just 69 games this season, and he hit .327/.416/.598 with 15 home runs.
MLB clubs looking for a third baseman will have Okamoto on their shopping list, especially the ones that miss out on Alex Bregman and Eugenio Suárez. He won’t hit as many home runs as Murakami can—or Suárez for that matter—but he doesn’t turn 30 until the end of June and makes more contact, giving him a likelier chance of hitting for average and getting on base.
Tatsuya Imai
Tatsuya Imai could land a bigger contract than either Murakami or Okamoto. The 27-year-old right-hander was one of the best pitchers in Japan this year for the Seibu Lions. He threw 163 2/3 innings over 24 starts with a 1.92 ERA, 178 strikeouts, and an 0.89 WHIP. He surrendered just 101 hits and six home runs all year.
Imai is one of the youngest legitimate starting pitchers available in free agency, which means he should be paid handsomely. He features a fastball in the mid 90s, a slider, and two offspeed pitches (changeup and splitter). He lacks the overpowering stuff of Sasaki and Yamamoto, but he figures to be a mid-rotation starter—and practically every team in baseball could use one.
Cody Ponce
Unlike the players above, Ponce has been through MLB before. The California native threw 55 1/3 innings for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2020 and 2021. He spent 2022-2024 in Japan and didn’t do especially well, compiling a 4.54 ERA over 202 innings. He moved to Korea in 2025 and took his game to a new level, posting a 1.89 ERA over 29 starts and 180 2/3 innings with a 0.94 WHIP. His 252 strikeouts broke the single-season KBO record, and he won the Choi Dong-won Award as the best pitcher in the league.
Ponce is a different guy than he was in his previous MLB stint. He’s throwing harder on all his pitches and added a new splitter. For a known entity like him, he’s going to need to prove it in MLB before getting a huge contract, but the nearly-32-year-old righty will get a short-term deal to become a member of someone’s rotation.