“I want to take them down.”

Most international free agents look at the juggernaut Los Angeles Dodgers built out West and see an easy path to a ring or a massive payday. Tatsuya Imai looks at them and sees a target. The 27-year-old ace has seemingly made it his personal mission to be the antagonist in the Shohei Ohtani story, specifically stating that taking down the Dodgers with a different competitor is at the very top of his wish list.

For the New York Yankees, that kind of competitive pettiness is absolute music to the ears.

We are watching the stars align in a way that rarely happens in free agency. Imai has a very specific, somewhat eccentric criterion for his next team: he prefers to join a club that does not currently have any Japanese players on the roster. He wants to be the si

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