Everything you need to know about Murakami, Imai and Okamoto + qualifying-offer surprises

Every MLB offseason there seems to be a new Japanese baseball sensation set to take Major League Baseball by storm. With the arrivals of Roki Sasaki and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, teams are hoping to find similar superstars across the globe to help bolster their chances of bringing home a championship. On this episode of Baseball Bar-B-Cast, Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman are joined by Japanese baseball expert Yuri Karasawa as they discuss Munetaka Murakami, Tatsuya Imai and Kazuma Okamoto all being posted this offseason. Will their games translate to MLB and which players could end up where? These questions and more are answered in this must-listen conversation. Later, Jake and Jordan talk about the four qualifying offers that were accepted this week and why some of them were a bit questionable, including Trent Grisham returning to the Yankees and Shota Imanaga going back to the Chicago Cubs. The guys then close out the episode by making their weekly picks for The Good, The Bad & The Uggla. 5:36 – Yuri Karasawa joins the show 12:29 – Munetaka Murakami breakdown 25:57 – Get to know Kazuma Okamoto 34:50 – What to expect from Tatsuya Imai 45:20 – Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s heroics 55:19 – Around the League: QO surprises 1:21:43 – The Good, The Bad & The Uggla Subscribe to Baseball Bar-B-Cast on your favorite podcast app: 🎧 Apple Podcasts 🎧 Spotify 🖥️ YouTube 📢 Check out the Yahoo Sports podcast network or yahoosports.tv And check out Jake, Jordan & the show on X or Instagram: 🌤️ @CespedesBBQ: https://bsky.app/profile/cespedesbbq.bsky.social 🐦 @CespedesBBQ: https://x.com/CespedesBBQ 📷 @CespedesBBQ: https://www.instagram.com/cespedesbbq ⚾ @Jake_Mintz: https://x.com/Jake_Mintz 🧢 @J_Shusterman: https://x.com/j_shusterman_