BALTIMORE \u2014 Tatsuya Imai\u2019s inauspicious introduction to Major League Baseball continued on Tuesday night, prompting more questions about where the Houston Astros will go from here with their heralded free-agent addition.<\/p>\n
In his first competitive outing since being sidelined with arm fatigue, Imai threw 59 pitches across two laborious innings during a minor-league rehab appearance with Double-A Corpus Christi. He walked three batters, threw a wild pitch, permitted six hits and surrendered five earned runs.<\/p>\n
\u201cPerformance wasn\u2019t great,\u201d Astros manager Joe Espada acknowledged on Thursday morning. \u201cBut at least we checked the box (that) he did look healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n
No Statcast or pitch data was publicly available from Imai\u2019s appearance, but Espada said, \u201cstuff-wise, the arm fatigue was not present, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
A team source said Imai hovered around 93 to 96 mph with his four-seam fastball. Before going on the injured list, Imai averaged 94.7 mph on his four-seam fastball, but he struggled to command anything in his arsenal. Imai has walked 11 batters in his first 8 1\/3 major-league innings.<\/p>\n
Espada said he was scheduled to have a call with Imai before Thursday\u2019s doubleheader against the Baltimore Orioles to map out his next steps.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, before Imai took the mound in Corpus Christi, Espada expressed cautious optimism that he would need only one minor-league rehab outing before returning to the major-league rotation.<\/p>\n
Imai\u2019s ensuing performance must give team officials pause, even if Houston\u2019s injury-ravaged rotation is starved for any stability. Imai is one of three members of the Astros\u2019 season-opening rotation on the IL, along with ace Hunter Brown and right-hander Cristian Javier.<\/p>\n
Presuming the Astros want to keep Imai throwing on five days of rest \u2014 as he did in Nippon Professional Baseball \u2014 his next turn in the major-league rotation would be on Monday against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Daikin Park. No decisions have been made, but it\u2019s difficult to imagine the Astros would want such a stressful assignment for a pitcher who still seems to be searching for consistency.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not concerned about the health,\u201d Espada said. \u201cWe want to make sure the performance from (Tuesday) will not linger into his next start. We want to hear from him, see how he felt and then we\u2019ll decide what\u2019s next.\u201d<\/p>\n