HOUSTON -- The success the Dodgers have had in the past few years with Japanese players didn’t go unnoticed by Astros owner Jim Crane. The arrival of Shohei Ohtani in Los Angeles prior to the 2024 season set the stage for the Dodgers to win back-to-back World Series titles, with pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto named the 2025 World Series Most Valuable Player.
The Astros, who missed the playoffs in ‘25 after an eight-year postseason run that included two World Series titles of their own, hadn’t signed a player from the Japanese free-agent market prior to Friday, when they signed star pitcher Tatsuya Imai to a three-year deal worth $54 million ($63 million with incentives). He’s the first free agent Houston has signed out of the Nippon Baseball League and probably won’t be the last.
“You hope you can pick up some more talent from there,” Crane said on Monday at the press conference at Daikin Park to introduce Imai. “There’s definitely Major League Baseball talent, and they’re developing the players.”
Crane visited Japan last summer to tour the facilities of Daikin Comfort Technologies, which signed a 15-year naming-rights deal with the downtown ballpark in Houston in November 2024. Crane’s shipping and freight company, Crane Worldwide Logistics, has offices all over the world, including Japan. He returned to Houston committed to beefing up the team’s scouting in the Pacific Rim.
“It did wake my eyes up when I went over there to visit with them and they took us around all over the country,” Crane said. “I've been in Japan many times. I’ve had an office there for 40 years. I know the market. We weren’t as focused as we should have. We had some people going in and out of there, but I knew we weren’t getting the job done in recognizing talent and getting in front of it, so we went all in. When we got back, I said, ‘We’re hiring people in all those spots,’ and luckily I have facilities, so I could fire up real quick.”
Over the summer, the Astros hired scouts in Tokyo, Taiwan and South Korea who set up shop in Crane’s offices. The goal is for the Astros to become bigger players in identifying talented players in Asia and signing them, a move that the Imai deal clearly indicates.
Imai is just the fourth Japanese player to play for the Astros, following Kaz Matsui, Nori Aoki and Yusei Kikuchi (who was acquired at the Trade Deadline in 2024).
“The Dodgers kind of led the way there and I’ve got an international company, so it was pretty easy to set up quickly and give those guys a place to work and communicate back here in our system,” Crane said. “We’ll be moving pretty fast in Asia and continue to focus on that and evaluate all the talent over there so we can hopefully get some more over here to play and deepen the team.
“You can really see the Asian market, the players coming out of there are really equivalent or better than some of the guys we have here. It was kind of untapped until we had the Ohtani effect, and I think a lot of people are focused on it. But we’ll be laser-focused on it moving forward.”
The deal with Imai is also important to the Astros’ partnership with Daikin Comfort Technologies North America, whose Chief Sales and Marketing Officer (CSMO), Taka Inoue, had a front-row seat at Monday’s press conference. The Astros’ agreement with Daikin runs through the 2039 season and includes official naming rights and other partnership benefits.
“They’re our partners, and I think they’ll be a big help for us over there in Japan, because they have a lot of resources,” Crane said. “We’ll lean on them, and they were gracious to sign a long-term deal with us here. I want them to be a part of the team.”
Kikuchi’s success in Houston -- he went 5-1 with a 2.70 ERA and 0.93 WHIP in 60 innings covering 10 starts at the end of the ’24 season before signing a three-year, $63 million deal with the Angels -- caught the attention of Imai and agent Scott Boras, who represents both pitchers.
The Astros hope it’s only the start of a successful pipeline from Japan.
“We had a great experience here with Kikuchi coming, both on an internal and external basis in the community,” Boras said. “Everyone involved got a chance to tell Tatsuya all about that and the comfort [Kikuchi] had here and the support he received from the staff coming here and improving as a player, how well he pitched in the ballpark. I’m excited for Houston and for Tatsuya.”