With five of the six months of the Major League Baseball season completed, the largest question mark regarding the cadre of Japanese import players surrounds the health of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani.
The problem — he’s just a one-way guy right now.
Ohtani has had a difficult couple of months with knee soreness and a right biceps muscle that is not at full strength, issues that are currently preventing him from pitching. He has not pitched since going six innings against San Diego on July 3.
Ohtani is expected to return to the mound sometime this season, but it is unclear exactly when because of continuing soreness.
“If any pitcher was feeling like this,” manager Dave Roberts said, “we wouldn’t run him out there.”
“To be quite frank, I just don’t see everything getting to 100% by the end of the season,” Roberts added. “But there’s a lot of pitchers that are not 100% and [are] still viable. So again, it’s just not an exact science.”
Ohtani’s production as a designated hitter has also taken a downturn, although he has not said that his physical issues have affected him at the plate. He batted just .241 in August and was 18 for 89 (.182) in his last 22 games of the month.
“Obviously … his value offensively is hugely important, and so we can’t compromise that in any fashion,” Roberts said. “So if throwing potentially cuts into that, that’s not worth the squeeze. [We’re] very, very bullish on making sure we don’t compromise the hitting.”
For the season, Ohtani is 8-2 with a 1.79 ERA and 0.95 WHIP as a pitcher, while hitting .280 with 30 home runs, 80 RBIs and a .908 OPS.
In the meantime, Ohtani’s teammate and fellow import Yoshinobu Yamamoto continued his outstanding season, though his 1-2 record in August does a good job of disguising it.
All five of his outings in August were quality starts, giving him 20 in what has thus far been a remarkably consistent season. In those five games, he allowed just seven earned runs in 32.1 innings for a 1.95 ERA. He gave up just 20 hits and eight walks while striking out 35 and posting an 0.87 WHIP.
Yamamoto’s lone victory during the month came August 14, when he went six innings against Milwaukee, allowing just four hits and one run. In losses to Boston and Atlanta, he gave up just eight hits, two walks, and four earned runs in 14.1 innings.
“I think all of us know from the start [that] we like where we’re at when Yoshi’s on the mound,” catcher Ben Rortvedt said after a 1-0 loss to Atlanta on August 27. “Kudos to Yoshi to be able to dig in there, rebound [from a leadoff home run], and give us a fighting chance the whole game.”
For the full season, Yamamoto stands at 12-8 with a 2.56 ERA and 0.89 WHIP. He’s also been a steady workhorse, failing in only two starts to go at least six innings.
Another import with solid numbers in August was Cubs designated hitter/outfielder Seiya Suzuki. He batted .288 with a .912 OPS, along with five home runs and 19 RBIs, and was 11 for 26 in his final six games of the month, including three three-hit games in his last four.
Once envisioned as a better fit at designated hitter than as a right fielder, the 32-year-old has been effective defensively this season and has been rated as one of the better free agents-to-be. His rating as a fielder by FanGraphs was negative in each of his first four MLB seasons, but it is +8.7 at the moment, and his current fWAR is 4.1, the best of his MLB career.
For the season, he is averaging .278 with 24 home runs, 80 RBIs, and an .865 OPS.
Suzuki is in the final season of the five-year, $85 million contract he signed with the Cubs in March 2022. Through four-and-a-half years as a Cub, he has a .270/.351/.476 slash line with 111 home runs and 376 runs batted in. He has expressed interest in a contract extension.
Relief pitcher Yuki Matsui of San Diego has performed well this season, though under the radar, as usual. He is 3-1 with a 2.03 earned-run mark through August.
In August alone, he pitched 11.2 innings over 11 appearances, allowing just five hits and one run while striking out 13 batters. The lone blemish in the month was the seven bases on balls that he allowed.
Not particularly known as a strikeout pitcher stateside, he has 58 strikeouts in 53.1 innings this season.
He remains in his setup role, entering games in the sixth, seventh, or eighth innings. He has not been in a save situation this season and has just one save — in 2025 — in his three years with the Padres.
Two other imports were on the upswing in August before landing on the Injured List.
Starter Roki Sasaki of the Dodgers had struggled much of the season with inconsistency, but he was on a roll until going on the IL on August 26 with a blister on his finger.
With a revised repertoire of pitches and better shape on his fastball, Sasaki had been dominant in his six starts between the All-Star break and an August 26 outing against Atlanta, with a 2.31 ERA in 35 innings. However, he ran into trouble in the fourth inning against the Braves and was removed because of the blister.
“He was on a good run,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “So now, unfortunately, it’s going to be a minimum two weeks.”
Though a starter at the moment, Sasaki is projected to be a big part of the bullpen during the playoffs, just as he was last season.
His 23 starts are a professional career high, and his 119.1 innings pitched are his most in a season since he threw 129.1 innings for the Chiba Lotte Marines in 2022. He is 6-6 with a 4.57 earned-run mark and 1.33 WHIP.
Designated hitter Masataka Yoshida, now in the fourth season of a five-year, $90 million contract with Boston, was having his best month statistically before going on the Injured List on August 16 with a left hamstring strain. Up to that point, he was batting .326 in August with an .892 OPS, which improved his seasonal slash line to a respectable .274/.347/.399.
According to interim manager Chad Tracy, the injury is significant enough that Yoshida is likely to miss most of the remainder of the regular season.
Beginning June 27, Yoshida got 36 hits in 111 at-bats for a .324 mark. A left-handed batter, he is averaging .296 against left-handed pitchers, albeit in just 30 plate appearances. He’s at .271 in 267 plate appearances against right-handers.
Additionally, several other imports also began trending in a positive direction during August.
New York Mets pitcher Kodai Senga has had a rough time since his excellent 2023 rookie MLB season, but there was some reason for optimism after his August performance out of the bullpen.
He stepped into the closer role when reliever Devin Williams went down with a shoulder issue, picked up his first MLB save on August 10, and was 5 for 5 in save opportunities during August. For the month, he had a 1.74 ERA, allowing six hits and two earned runs over 10.1 frames.
There are indications that Senga may have what it takes to succeed as a closer. Only time will tell, of course, but it is encouraging for the Mets, who watched Senga thrive in 2023 as an MLB rookie and then nosedive — in part because of injuries — since.
“Kodai has done a great job,” Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns said on August 17. “He has adjusted very well. It’s not just in the performance that we are seeing when he goes out there. It’s how he is getting ready for those performances. He is to the point where [interim manager Andy Green] is able to use him as a normal relief pitcher. That’s a credit to Kodai.”
For the season, Senga stands at 0-9 with a 7.36 ERA and 1.64 WHIP.
Los Angeles Angels starter Yusei Kikuchi was activated from the 60-day Injured List on August 23 and started that day against Texas. He gave up seven hits — two of them home runs — and five earned runs in five innings. That came after posting a 15.63 ERA in four rehab outings.
However, he followed that a week later with a strong start against Philadelphia in which he went seven innings, allowed two runs on six hits, walked only one batter, and struck out six. Despite allowing solo home runs to J.T. Realmuto and Edmundo Sosa, he saw positive signs.
“My fastball command is something I’ve been working on for the whole season, not only with the fastball, but all pitches,” Kikuchi said through interpreter Koki Goto. “In my recent starts, I was able to get strikes, get ahead in the count, so I think I’m going in a good trend right now. But the two homers allowed were in the heart of the zone, so in the times that matter, I need to execute it more in a tougher spot.”
Kikuchi had struggled prior to going on the IL on May 3 with shoulder inflammation, posting a 5.81 ERA with 33 strikeouts, 14 walks, and three homers allowed in 31 innings across seven starts. His season marks are 0-5, a 5.65 earned-run mark, and 1.49 WHIP.
Even Houston’s Tatsuya Imai, who has had a very difficult first MLB season, may have started turning things around.
He made 15 starts – the last on July 27 – before being relegated to the bullpen, from where he had a bit of success in a small sample size. He made only three appearances in August, all in relief, and allowed just two earned runs in nine innings.
“For right now, I’m really trying to figure out and trying to have the consistency and perform,” Imai said. “That’s the only thing I’m thinking right now. The team is trying to win the division as well. That is not in my mind right now. My thing is just to try to perform well, and that’s the only thing on my mind right now.”
“It’s [the transition to MLB] been way (more) difficult than I thought,” he added. “Everything is new. I just have to try out everything step by step, try to figure out how to adapt, how to adjust. For my second year, it won’t be my first year, so I’ll have to adjust well more and start performing with more consistency.”
Overall, he has a 6-4 record and a 5.32 ERA, with 44 walks and 83 strikeouts in 67.2 innings.
Chicago Cubs southpaw Shota Imanaga, who will be a free agent after this season, followed a July in which he posted a 1.53 ERA with an August in which that figure ballooned to 4.58.
He got a victory over the Dodgers in his first start of the month, giving up just one run in five innings, but he allowed eight earned runs over 12.2 innings in his other four outings. For the month, he gave up six home runs in 17.2 innings.
Imanaga did get 10 strikeouts against the White Sox on August 17 when he gave up three runs on just two hits. However, he gave up three walks and one home run.
For the season, he stands 8-9 with a 4.01 ERA and 1.14 WHIP.
First baseman/designated hitter Munetaka Murakami of the Chicago White Sox went down with a hamstring strain on May 30 and was finally reactivated on July 10. He averaged .258 with four home runs and 10 RBIs the rest of July, but struggled mightily in August — a .150 batting average, a .642 OPS, and 45 strikeouts in 100 at-bats.
For the season, he is slashing .218/.361/.496 with 29 home runs and 59 RBIs. As expected, he has a high strikeout percentage (33.7), having struck out 149 times in 363 at-bats. Despite having missed nearly a month and a half of play, he has the 14th-highest strikeout total in MLB.
White Sox manager Will Venable said, “It’s about making good swing decisions and getting good swings off in the zone. Sometimes you swing-and-miss. Sometimes you roll them over. In the case of Mune, he has taken some really good swings and is making some good swing decisions. He’s still drawing walks. We haven’t seen him necessarily click on balls going out of the park like we are used to. [He] had a couple of balls in that series that just didn’t go out.”
There has been talk of extending Murakami’s contract, which currently runs through the 2027 season.
“We would love to have him here long term,” White Sox general manager Chris Getz said of the early extension talks. “It seems that he has interest, and we do as well. We’ve had some conversations, but we’ll just leave it at that.”
After a solid July and a decent start to August, Colorado starter Tomoyuki Sugano imploded in his last three outings and finished the month with a 1-3 record and 7.58 ERA.
In his first two starts of the month, he pitched 11 innings, allowing 11 hits and five earned runs. However, he allowed 26 hits and 17 earned runs over just 12 innings in his last three.
Home runs continue to be an issue. He gave up 33 in 157 innings last season with Baltimore and has allowed them at a very similar rate in 2026 — 27 in 125.2 innings. He gave up five in just 19 innings in August.
For the season, Sugano is 12-7 with a 5.23 earned-run average and 1.36 WHIP.
Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Kazuma Okamoto transitioned to MLB this year after a long NPB career and is still a work in progress. He slashed just .229/.299/.417 in August with three home runs and eight RBIs. Overall, he stands at .230/.306/.447.
His strikeout rate is 29.7%. In his NPB career, he only once had a rate as high as 20 percent, and that was in his sophomore campaign. He has already struck out 160 times, the eighth-highest total in MLB.
He has shown good power, though, with team-leading figures of 28 home runs and 78 RBIs, and he was voted the American League Rookie of the Month for June. With his 25th homer on August 18 — which Statcast projected at 442 feet — he surpassed the previous franchise record for a rookie set by Eric Hinske in 2002.
NOTES: Padres starter Yu Darvish, 40, who is out this season because of internal brace surgery on his elbow, has thrown a couple of bullpen sessions and has dismissed thoughts of retirement … Rintaro Sasaki, chosen by Miami in the 2026 MLB draft, has been assigned to the rookie-level club in the Florida Complex League, but he has yet to appear in a game … Itsuki Takemoto, who pitched in the Koshien tournament as a high-schooler with Chiben Wakayama High School and then went to the University of Hawaii, was drafted by the Athletics in the 19th round in 2025. This season, he has split time between the Arizona Complex League and the A’s low-A affiliate in Stockton, California, posting a combined mark of 4-2 with a 5.37 ERA in 37 games, all in relief … Shotaro Morii, signed out of high school by the A’s last year, has spent most of this season with Stockton, averaging .227 with a .695 OPS, four home runs, and 24 RBIs in 63 games … Pitcher Shinnosuke Ogasawara, who signed a two-year, $3.5 million contract with Washington ahead of the 2025 season, spent time earlier this season at the AA and AAA levels, was granted his release on June 15, and signed with the Yomiuri Giants on June 18. He had previously played 10 seasons for the Chunichi Dragons.
