{"id":385891,"date":"2026-01-02T02:03:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T02:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/385891\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T02:03:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T02:03:07","slug":"kona-takahashi-could-return-to-npb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/385891\/","title":{"rendered":"Kona Takahashi Could Return To NPB"},"content":{"rendered":"

Right-hander Tatsuya Imai<\/a> found an MLB home earlier today, signing<\/a> a three-year deal with the Astros. The same can\u2019t be said for Imai\u2019s former Seibu Lions teammate, Kona Takahashi<\/a>, whose posting window closes on Sunday<\/a>. With just one major league offer on the table, Takahashi could be headed back to Nippon Professional Baseball, reports Mark Feinsand and Brian Murphy of MLB.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Imai landed a contract on the final day of his posting window, so there\u2019s certainly still time for Takahashi to find a desirable deal. Feinsand and Murphy didn\u2019t provide additional details about the lone offer in front of Takahashi, but their report suggests it might not be enough to coax the righty stateside. The duo suggested that Takahashi could head back to the Lions on a new multi-year deal with opt-outs that would allow him to hit the open market following the 2026 season as an unrestricted free agent. Avoiding the posting system and the associated release fees could make Takahashi more appealing to MLB teams next offseason.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old Takahashi bounced back to a degree in 2025 after a down year in 2024. He posted an ERA just over 3.00 across 24 starts with the Lions. He continued to show impeccable control (6.7% walk rate), though his strikeout rate fell to a career-low 14.3%. Takahashi had made just 15 starts the prior season. He recorded a 3.87 ERA in 2024 and failed to reach 120 innings for the first time since 2018.<\/p>\n

Takahashi had a stellar two-year run from 2022 to 2023. He put together consecutive seasons with a sub-2.25 ERA while pushing his strikeout rate up near 20%. Takahashi tossed a career-high 175 2\/3 innings in 2022, then came back with a 155-inning campaign the following year. Outside of 2024, he\u2019s typically been a durable member of the Lions\u2019 rotation.<\/p>\n

James Fegan and Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs<\/a> pegged Takahashi as a backend starter, with praise for his pitching prowess but questions about his underwhelming fastball. Fegan and Longenhagen tiered Takahashi with Foster Griffin<\/a> and Anthony Kay<\/a> as potential options to fill out an MLB rotation. Griffin landed<\/a> with the Nationals on a one-year deal, while Kay secured<\/a> a two-year commitment from the White Sox.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Peter Aiken, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Right-hander Tatsuya Imai found an MLB home earlier today, signing a three-year deal with the Astros. The same…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,76766,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-385891","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-kona-takahashi","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}