Okamoto to Blue Jays, Imai to Astros & How Baseball Could Be Impacted by the Current State of Venezuela

With the recent success of Japanese players like Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Roki Sasaki, teams throughout baseball have been clamoring to add stars from Japan to their rosters. The Houston Astros and the Toronto Blue Jays did just that by bringing in Tatsuya Imai and Kazuma Okamoto, with hopes of having similar impacts on their game.

On this episode of Baseball Bar-B-Cast, Jordan Shusterman is joined by guest host Eric Longenhagen from FanGraphs to talk about the two signings and how their skill sets might be adjusted to the major league level. They then check in on the Scott Boras Scoreboard to try to determine how the super agent did with his deal for Imai.

Later, Jordan is joined by Astros beat writer Chandler Rome from The Athletic as they dig a little deeper into the Imai signing and try to figure out why he chose to go to Houston. They then talk about what the future might hold for the team after this signing and how, positionally, the Astros could be set up for the 2026 season. Jordan and Eric then discuss how recent events in Venezuela could impact baseball and talk about the fall of a top prospect.

2:57 – Kazuma Okamoto to the Blue Jays
19:11 – Tatsuya Imai to the Astros
25:26 – Scott Boras Scoreboard update
34:12 – Chandler Rome joins the show
53:46 – Future of the Astros
1:06:51 – Venezuela’s impact on baseball
1:17:46 – Jarred Kelenic signs with the White Sox

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