""Of course, I'd enjoy playing alongside Ohtani, Yamamoto, and Sasaki," Imai said to former MLB starter Daisuke Matsuzaka on "Hodo Station", "but winning against a team like that and becoming a world champion would be the most valuable thing in my life. If anything, I'd rather take them down.""
""If there were another Japanese player on the same team, I could just ask them about anything, right? But that's actually not what I'm looking for. In a way, I want to experience that sense of survival. When I come face-to-face with cultural differences, I want to see how I can overcome them on my own - that's part of what I'm excited about.""
""I really want to see how much my fastball holds up against him - to test myself by throwing it to him," Imai said."
The Los Angeles Dodgers signed Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki and Shohei Ohtani in recent offseasons. Tatsuya Imai spent nine professional seasons in Japan with the Saitama Seibu Lions and was posted to MLB this offseason. Imai said he prefers not to join the Dodgers and would rather face and beat them on his way to becoming a world champion. He also said he wants to avoid teams that already have a Japanese player in order to confront cultural differences and learn to adapt independently. Imai expressed a desire to test his fastball against Ohtani. He posted a career-low 1.92 ERA through 24 starts in 2025.
Read at Dodgers Nation
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