There are a lot of reasons a pitcher would pick the Dodgers. Money. Marketing. A rotation that basically comes with a cheat code. But that’s exactly why Tatsuya Imai’s whole vibe matters here, because he’s been pretty direct that he doesn’t want to join that machine, he wants to take it down.
And if that’s the mission statement, San Diego is the cleanest fit in baseball.
The Padres aren’t selling Imai on being “part of the story.” They’re selling him on being the guy who swings it. This team lives in the same division as the Dodgers, sees them constantly, and plays in a world where every NL West series feels like it comes with postseason energy baked in.