One of the highlights of the latest offseason has been the influx of players from Asia, with pitchers from Japan the most prevalent overseas additions to MLB rosters. Yoshinobu Yamamoto has dominated the headlines, but Shota Imanaga, Yuki Matsui and Naoyuki Uwasawa will all be joining the group of hurlers coming over to the United States from Japan. A couple of Korean players -- pitcher Woo Suk Go and outfielder Jung Hoo Lee -- have also signed major league contracts.
As all six are expected to play major roles for their teams this season, an outlook for each of these players will follow, along with the names of five players to track as potentially being part of the next wave of players to enter MLB from Asia. Before that, though, we thought it would be wise to provide some background and context. After all, Shohei Ohtani's 2018 arrival in Anaheim may have skewed expectations a bit.