Tatsuya Imai to Houston, Kazuma Okamoto to Toronto & A Few Resolutions

Rates & Barrels: A show about Baseball

The Athletic

Fantasy Baseball, Mlb, Baseball, Sports

4.7 • 873 Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2026

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Eno and DVR return for their first show of 2026 to discuss Tatsuya Imai's fit in Houston, Kazuma Okamoto's move to the Blue Jays, Tyler Mahle to the Giants, late-inning options for the Angels, and a few resolutions for the year ahead.

Rundown

2:39 Tatsuya Imai: Signs with Astros (Three-Year Deal, Two Opt-Outs)

10:24 A Light Group of Starting Pitchers in Pick 200-300 Range

18:39 Kazuma Okamoto: Lands in Toronto

26:33 Tyler Mahle: Inks One-Year Deal with Giants

34:13 Kirby Yates Joins the Halos' Bullpen; Who Closes in Anaheim?

44:14 Nick Kurtz's Role in the A's Core

50:31 Rumors & Resolutions: Freddy Peralta, Edward Cabrera & Eno is Ferris Bueller

Follow Eno on Bluesky: @enosarris.bsky.social

Follow DVR on Bluesky: @DVR.bsky.social

e-mail: ratesandbarrels@gmail.com

Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/FyBa9f3wFe

Subscribe to The Athletic: theathletic.com/ratesandbarrels

Hosts: Derek VanRiper & Eno Sarris

Producer: Brian Smith

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Bucketrates and barrels, it's Monday, January 5th, 2026.
0:16.0	Happy New Year. We are back.
0:18.1	Derek and Riper, Inoceris, here with you.
0:20.0	On this episode, we catch up on a few big signings.
0:23.4	Tetsuya Imii heads to Houston.
0:26.5	Kazuma Okamoto.
0:28.1	Heads to Toronto, of all places.
0:30.9	We'll dig into the implications of those moves.
0:32.7	Kirby Yates, Tyler Malley.
0:34.6	Got some mailbag questions.
0:36.2	We got some rumors, maybe some resolutions.
0:38.9	Eno, how did your 2025 end and how has your 2026 started, my friend?
0:45.0	A lot of cooking, a lot of cooking. I did. Ox tail, crab cakes. Gosh, what did I do? Smash burgers.
1:06.3	I forget now, but it was a lot of cooking, a lot of cooking and I enjoyed it. I had fun doing it. Today is a leftover meal day in the house. Got to eat through what's in there.
1:47.2	The first Monday back to work is a hilarious day. Like no matter how many days you get off, it's just a regular weekend. You get a week, two, three weeks. People have a lot of time off. I think Stephen Sutton Brown said he hadn't worked since December 10th. And he left himself no notes of what he was working on. So when he showed up to work today, he's like, I don't even know what to do. It feels foreign. You know, you're just like, I'm not, I haven't been in the, I haven't even like sat in this chair much in the last three weeks. I'm just like, oh yeah, this is my desk. I got very ambitious with a lot of end of year and New Year's projects. If you're watching on YouTube, you'll notice the bricks are no longer in my background, but you'll also notice that there's a picture behind my shoulder that is not hanging on the wall,
1:48.0	and there's nothing else on the wall behind me yet. Wait, what happened to the bricks? Oh, they're still here. They're
1:52.3	just off to my left. Oh, you changed your, change your spot. I rotated. I rotated 90 degrees,
1:59.4	and it feels good. I got a whole new perspective on life. Lots of
2:02.7	things are changing for the better. It's brighter. It's brighter. Yeah, my face looks really nice.
2:09.5	I mean, for my face, like, adjusting to who I am and what I look like. Face plus. Face plus is still
2:16.3	not good, but I'm maximizing my potential.
2:20.9	That's a goal of mine for 2026.
	...

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