We get a handful of players coming over from Japan/Korea every winter. We saw some big impact from Munetaka Murakami and Kazuma Okamoto last year. The pitchers recently haven't made a huge impact, but there are some gems like Yoshinobu Yamamoto in recent years.
We'll try to get to know the next class in this post.
Teruaki Sato | LHB | Third Base / Outfield
Early ADP: 225
He played 125 games at third last year and 18 more in the outfield. I'd imagine he'll be targeted as a power-hitting third baseman for a big league club.
Sato won the triple crown in the NPB Central League, hitting .306/.383/.609 with 39 homers, 106 RBI, and eight steals. There was swing-and-miss, as is usually the case with power hitters. His home run rate was well below that of Murakami, and he didn't walk nearly as much, but he made a little bit more contact.
116 max EV, so that's awesome. An estimated 18% Brl%, also awesome. The power is for real, but we always question the batting averages these guys will manage as they go through this transition to facing much better (and different) pitching.
Sato is the prized bat in the international market, and he's arguably the only one you will seriously be considering in your home league drafts.
Here's a full video breakdown if you want a deeper look than what I'm giving you:
Signing-wise, the lockout does us some favors. He has to sign before December 2nd, so we'll know where he's landing pretty soon.
The landing spot matters, of course. He hit all of those homers last year in a bad hitter's park, which is a good thing for him.
The teams rumored to have interest: Phillies, Yankees, Mets, Padres, Dodgers.
All of those spots make sense. There are no fantastic third basemen on those teams. The Phillies in particular make sense as a team with a window that is closing fast with the age of Wheeler, Harper, Schwarber, Turner, Nola, etc. And I think they'll be perfectly fine not having Alec Bohm playing every day at third. So that's my prediction - PHILLIES.
The Yankees also have a very competitive roster but no third baseman to speak of. Ryan McMahon is still listed as the starter, and that's probably their biggest weakness.
Will he be worth the money? Well, I don't know if he'll cost all that much. Murakami didn't sign for much, and that's the most logical comp, but Sato isn't viewed quite as positively as he is from what I'm seeing. So this isn't a guy a team will have to break the bank for, and I'd expect him to land in one of those bigger-market cities with teams that have a chance to compete in the short term.
Maybe a 30-homer bat who will hit 4th-6th in the order and be able to drive in some runs? But a big batting average risk without the same walks-driven OBP floor that Murakami had.
Kaima Taira | RHP
Early ADP: 360
Taira’s 2026 line: 1.36 ERA, 141 strikeouts, and 45 walks in 146 innings. That's 8.7 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9. He also saved 31 games in 2025. So he's done both starting and relieving, which has some people thinking he could be a cheap bullpen addition for a competitor.
More stats from last year: 25% K%, 7.9% BB%, 0.25 HR/9. Three straight year with an ERA below two, but that was in limited innings in 2024 and 2025. Here's the table from his FanGraphs page.
The fastball velo is in the mid-90s, so nothing huge. And of course, there's a splitter. But it's a deep pitch mix.
Four-seamer, cutter, and sinker! He's a real pitcher. That could bolster the floor, but he'll have to command most all of those pitches to have success in a big league rotation. That's the problem we saw with Imai - he just could not locate.
The big question for fantasy leagues, in my view, is what the strikeout rate will turn into. You don't necessarily lose strikeouts coming to the Majors since generally hitters aren't too mad about striking out if it gets them some more homers. But he's not starting from a great spot, so a reasonable projection would have him in the low-20s in K%.
Lance Brozdowski has a great break down on his Substack:
Lance Brozdowski
Most of that is paywalled, sorry about that, but you should subscribe to Lance if you're really into pitching stuff. He's one of the best.
Lance highlighted right off the bat his super unique release point. So he might be able to succeed with that funkiness factor. Hitters won't have seen guys like him, and that's always a help.
But the 360 early ADP shows that the people putting their money where their mouth is don't think the guy is a potential ace. Maybe one thing holding that ADP down is that we don't know if he'll be a reliever or a starter. He could very well end up as a non-closer reliever, which would be curtains for fantasy value. Or he could get in the rotation and just SUCK, a la Tatsuya Imai.
We'll see! I think he should sign on with a team before December 2nd as well, and then we should have some clarity on what the plan is.
The teams that are rumored as being after him: Yankees, Giants, Tigers.
Si-Hwan Roh | RHB | 3B
Early ADP: 385
He's coming over from the KBO. Those hitters haven't translated very well in recent years. But that's judging individuals based on their group classification!
Roh certainly has more power than Ha-Seong and Hyeseong Kim. And his name isn't Kim, so that's different too.
32 bombs in 2025, 29 last year. The K% really came up last year and the BB% went down. So that's interesting. Maybe he was trying to homer his way to the bigs or something. He hit those 29 bombs in 17 fewer games, so he was a 30-homer-a-game guy.
The high K% is a concern. And from the limited data we have, his EVs don't look comparable to that of Sato's. I believe he's viewed as a better defensive 3B than Sato, but he's not known as some world-class dude in that regard.
So I think he'll be cheap, and it doesn't look all that appealing for fantasy leagues since he has about the same K% problems as Sato without the upper-echelon bat speed.
Decent consolation prize for a big league team in need of a third baseman. But hey, I'm kind of shooting from the hip here. We don't have great data on the guy, so he could end up being a gem. Unlike the Kim's, we know this guy can hit some dingers.
Hiroto Saiki | RHP
His team didn't approve him to be posted, so it looks like he's not coming to the bigs yet. Maybe next year, and that would be a big prize. He had a big 28% K% last year with a 5% BB%, ridiculous numbers. But it won't matter for 2027.
But if you're in some Dynasty League where you can add him now, go ahead and do it.
Hiromi Itoh | RHP
Early ADP: 464
Not an electric arm, but he's thrown 170+ innings in each of the last three in Japan. So maybe he's just a volume / rotation depth option for an MLB team.
Looks like Mets fan blogs are cranking hog to some of these potential international signings. Here's a lengthy piece on Itoh from Amazin' Avenue:
Steve Sypa
The pitch mix:
Not much fastball velo, some slider variation, a splitter, and then a mix of other stuff to throw in there.
More of a Tomoyuki Sugano type than a Yamamoto type. That's harsh, he probably can't be as bad as Sugano, but certainly won't be as good as Yamamoto.
He struck out just 22% of batters last year with a 4.7% BB%. Maybe some bad luck with a .324 BABIP, but he gave up more homers than the other elite Japanese arms. They don't hit many homers over there.
So yeah, he seems like a Brady Singer or something to me!
All in all, it doesn't look like you're going to win your league with any international player you draft. Sato has the most upside, and in recent years the trend has been that hitters have an easier time transitioning, but they seemingly all get worse statistically when coming to the bigs.
And that's because America is the best, and everybody wants to come here! World Baseball Classic results, aside, of course... we just don't want to win those tournaments!
Just look at Shoki Oda! The top high school ballplayer in Japan, and he said NO THANKS to the NPB draft so he could come over as a teenager to pursue baseball in the US of A. Come on over, buddy!
Japanese 18-year-old pitching prospect Shoki Oda and his camp met with MLB teams yesterday, including the Phillies and Mets. He is expected to meet with the Cardinals, Blue Jays, Astros, Yankees and others in the coming hours.
— Francys Romero (@FrancysRomero) November 6, 2026
Oda would be eligible to sign on Jan. 15, 2027, if…
He certainly won't be in the Major Leagues for at least a couple years, so we don't need to know about him for 2027. But he's an exciting get for whichever club signs him.
Not the most in-depth analysis here, but I just wanted to become familiar with these guys ahead of NFBC draft season, so I hope I helped you with that.
Shout-out to the other content producers out there I linked to above! Go check them out.
