Kaima Taira's Team Has Accepted His Posting Request, So He's Coming to MLB

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Another big-time Japanese star is coming over this offseason to MLB. Following word of Triple-Crown-winning third baseman Teruaki Soto’s coming posting, we now know that righty Kaima Taira – who put together the pitching equivalent season – is coming, too.

Per Nikkan Sports , Seibu Lions GM Koji Hiroike announced to the media today that the team has approved Taira’s posting request, which will soon make him available to Major League Baseball teams. The soon-to-be-27-year-old righty could be official available as soon as Sunday, at which point he’d have 45 days to sign with an MLB team (subject to the lockout, which puts a pause on things).

From our previous discussion of Kaima Taira :

If the Chicago Cubs want to be sure they have at least one Japanese star on the team every year, and fear the departures of Seiya Suzuki and Shota Imanaga, then they better be heavily in on righty Kaima Taira, who is expected to be posted this offseason for MLB teams and represented by Scott Boras.

The Chicago Cubs have already been connected to Taira , among many other MLB teams that have been scouting him this year.

Kaima Taira, who turns 27 next month, is currently pitching in the postseason and just wrapped up one of the best NPB regular seasons in recent memory:

Because he’s a shorter, stouter type (roughly 5’8″, 220 lbs), I suspect Taira was pigeonholed into relief for much of his young career. He was a dominant reliever for the first four years of his time in the NPB, then was an outstanding starter in 2023, then was back to relief in 2024 and 2025 (dominating again), and then moved back into the rotation this season. As you see, it worked quite well. Taira posted a league-best 1.36 ERA over 146.0 innings (60% better than league average), a 2.28 FIP (34% better than league average), a 24.8% K, 7.9% BB, and a 48.5% GB.

I presume Taira aims to come to MLB as a starting pitcher, given his dominance in the role this past season in the NBP, but we’ll see how teams view him.

The role question doesn’t bog me down too much for a variety of reasons. For one thing, it’s not like the Cubs can’t use a reliever or a starter. There are needs in both categories, so whatever. For another thing, the Cubs have shown, particularly in the Craig Counsell era, that they don’t mind moving guys around and among roles throughout the season as needs arise. Everyone wants a locked-in five-man group of seven-inning starters, but that’s just not the reality of the game today. So having guys who can move between roles – if it comes to that – is actually a good thing to have available. For still another thing, the Cubs’ needs on the pitching side are so significant that they definitely fall into the “get as many talented arms in as possible, figure out roles later” bucket.

To that end, it’s possible Taira will be looking for more of a guaranteed chance to start, and maybe you have to massage the message there a bit. Of course, how hard could it be with a Cubs pitching staff that is Javier Assad and a bunch of question marks?

Ultimately, what the Kaima Taira question comes down to for me is much more about whether the Cubs believe he can get MLB hitters out. Forget the role. Does he have the stuff and the makeup to get outs? If so, you’re talking about a 27-year-old Japanese star that you can get into your organization for several years in his prime. Just take the chance!

(Unless, as I said, the Cubs just don’t project him to be successful in the big leagues. We’ve started to see some contract projections that have Taira looking at a pretty darn modest pay day, which does suggest some skepticism around the league about how he’ll translate. So I don’t want to get too far out ahead of myself – just because Taira is a star in Japan, that doesn’t mean he’d be a star, or even a good pitcher, here.)

One other reason not to worry too much about the role question, at least as it relates to Taira being only 5’8″? He throws hard and gets elite extension, which can actually make the height thing play up. From Lance Brozdowski :

“The point in space Taira releases the ball from is his superpower. He has a below-average arm angle (~25°) with 6.8’ extension that pulls his release point down to 4.9’—lower than 97% of MLB righties. He also releases the ball further toward third base than 90% of MLB righties. I want to emphasize how rare it is that a 5-foot-8 pitcher releases the ball this far out in front of his body. If your extension is 11% greater than your standing height, you’re sitting inside one standard deviation. This is another way to say it’s nothing special. Jacob Misiorowski extends 15% greater than his standing height. This is distinct. Taira extends 20% beyond his height , something we virtually never see. Even if the NPB tracking data I have access to carries some error, and he ends up averaging 6.6-6.7’ extension, that would still be novel enough to give Taira bonus points.”

What’s that? A pitcher who does something really weird and outlier-y? Yeah, that’s a Cubs target!

So, Taira has that unique four-seamer (at 95.5 mph), plus a 91 mph cutter, a 94 mph sinker with a distinct shape, a spliter, a gyro slider, a changeup, and a sweeper, all of which he threw consistently this past season. That’s another thing we know the Cubs like! Pitch diversity.

Brett Taylor is the Lead Baseball Writer at Bleacher Nation. You can find him on X at @Brett_A_Taylor , on Bluesky at @Brett-Taylor , and on LinkedIn here . Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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