Wednesday BP: How are you feeling about the Tatsuya Imai news?

Good morning, baseball fans!

Yesterday, Steven wrote about the news that the San Francisco Giants are reportedly not interested in spending the money it would take to pursue Japanese RHP Tatsuya Imai, or really any big name

I cannot improve upon Steven’s commentary, because it is absolutely spot-on. Personally, I can’t say that I’m surprised to hear that the team doesn’t want to spend money on top-tier talent. That has been the status quo for…well, about as long as I have been writing for this website. Which is the better part of the last decade.

I am, of course, disappointed. Imai will be an incredibly exciting addition to any team he ends up with. Not just because he wants to help take down the Los Angeles Dodgers, though that’s certainly an appealing factor. I guess it’s a small comfort that he will not, in theory, end up playing for said Dodgers. But that leads me to my biggest annoyance.

The only way this team is going to be able to compete in their division for the foreseeable future is if they go all-in, like the Dodgers have (or even the San Diego Padres). So the announcement that they aren’t interested in being big spenders is a massive, neon, red-flag laden billboard to Giants fans that we should expect more of the same. And that’s annoying. And frustrating. And disappointing. And boring. And a number of other adjectives.

It feels like they’re setting expectations at the lowest possible rung. But I guess the silver lining is that they won’t end up pretending to pursue the top free agent pitchers only to end up as also-rans.

How are you feeling about the Tatsuya Imai news?