Tatsuya Imai's Dodgers comments will be music to the ears of SF Giants fans

The SF Giants have been seen as a potential suitor for star Japanese pitcher Tatsuya Imai who has been posted by his team the Seibu Lions and has until early January to sign with an MLB team. His recent comments on the Los Angeles Dodgers will be music to the ears of Giants fans.

In a media appearance in Japan, Imai said he may prefer joining an MLB team that does not have any Japanese players so he can carve his own path. He also said that he would rather take down the Dodgers and go up against Japanese players like Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Roki Sasaki rather than join them.

Imai said the following about playing with the Dodgers according to a translation on social media, "I want to take them down. (Playing together with players like Ohtani, Yamamoto, Sasaki, and others) of course sounds fun, but I think beating a team like that and becoming world champions would be the most valuable thing in my life."

SF Giants may have a great chance to sign a guy who wants to beat Dodgers

This should be very exciting for the Giants. While many probably assumed that the Dodgers would land Imai because they have landed pretty much every other major Japanese player in recent years, the fact that he sounds like he wants to see how well his stuff will play against someone like Ohtani is refreshing and makes for an incredibly easy sales pitch from the Giants.

Want to go up against Ohtani? Well, we play him 13 times per season so why not come here and make a handful of starts against the Dodgers every year?

The only problem is Imai is projected to command a nine-figure contract which would seem to go against Giants chairman Greg Johnson's unofficial line in the sand when it comes to starting pitchers.

If the Giants are going to make an exception for that nine-figure threshold, Imai is really the only pitcher in this free agent class they should pursue. Not only has he put up great numbers in the NPB, with a 1.92 ERA in 163 and 2/3 innings pitched last season with 178 strikeouts, but he would be an exciting arm for the Giants' rotation and any time he squared off against the Dodgers would be must-see TV.

Of course, the Giants are not the only team who will be interested in Imai's services. Expect big teams like the New York Yankees and New York Mets to be in the running as well and if they blow Imai out of the water with a huge deal then he may have no other choice but to sign with them.

But, if Imai is serious about wanting to take on the Dodgers then he sure sounds like a guy who would want to play for the Giants.