Okamoto to the Blue Jays, Imai to the Astros and how baseball could be affected by the current state of Venezuela

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

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On this episode of Baseball-B-Cast BarJordan Shusterman is joined by guest host Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs to talk about the two signings and how their skill sets could be adjusted at the major league level. They then check Scott Boras’ dashboard to try to determine how the super agent handled his deal for Imai.

Later, Jordan is joined by Astros writer Chandler Rome of Athletics as they dig a little deeper into Imai’s signing and try to understand why he chose to go to Houston. They then talk about what the future could 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 downfall of a top prospect.

2:57 – Kazuma Okamoto to Blue Jays

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7:11 p.m. – Tatsuya Imai to the Astros

25:26 – Dashboard update from Scott Boras

34:12 – Chandler Rome joins the show

53:46 – The 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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