As Shota Imanaga dominated the best hitters in the world in his first season in MLB, it potentially laid the framework for one of his countrymen half a world away.

Roki Sasaki — his agent Joel Wolfe said — wants to be one of the game’s best.

And to do that, Sasaki knows he needs to be tested.

“I think his experience at the WBC, being around [Yu] Darvish, being around [Shohei] Ohtani, and then seeing Imanaga come over and dominate at such a level in the first half, I believe he realized — and I’m not speaking for Roki, I’m speaking my own opinion — in order to take it to the next level, he had to come here, play against the best players in the world every day and tap into all the resources that major league teams have to make him into that,” Wolfe said on a Zoom call on Monday.

That’s why the 23-year-old righty feels it’s the perfect moment to come to MLB. It was time to be challenged against the game’s best.

He could have waited a couple of more years and hit the market as a free agent with no restrictions, being able to sign a lucrative contract like fellow countryman Yoshinobu Yamamoto did when he inked a 12-year, $325 million deal.

Instead, Sasaki will sign as a minor-league free agent and be limited to a contract within the confines of a team’s international bonus pool money, in the Cubs’ case that maxes out at $6,261,600, per the Associated Press.

But the adjustment to MLB for Japanese players isn’t always seamless. Ohtani, arguably the best player in baseball, dealt with injuries in his first two years and hit .190 in his third big-league season before being named a unanimous MVP in 2021.

The Cubs, a source confirmed earlier this month, were one of an unspecified number of teams that met with Sasaki, Wolfe and the rest of their team at the Wasserman offices. The Cubs — like the rest of the teams — met for 2 hours, per Sasaki’s request so that it would be a level playing field and none of the team’s players were allowed to attend.

Sasaki is currently back in Japan and will return to finalize the process. The next steps could include visits to prospective cities still involved, but none of that is finalized yet.  

As a minor league free agent, he can’t sign until January 15, but Wolfe doesn’t expect him to sign immediately on that day.

“I think it’ll be sometime between January 15 and the deadline [January 23], but we’ll see how that goes,” Wolfe said.

Since the money — regardless of where he signs — won’t be the deciding factor, Sasaki is looking at teams that can put him and his career in the best position to thrive.

For the Cubs, they have some track record they can try and sell him on. Imanaga’s transition and success provide a blueprint for Sasaki. Their development of young pitchers into bonafide major leaguers — like Justin Steele and Javier Assad — shows they can help Sasaki.

Those are the types of factors that could be the difference — and could provide the Cubs with a young, controllable, cheap and talented arm. And a pitcher who wants to be elite.

“He’s not coming here just to be rich or to get a huge contract,” Wolfe said. “He wants to be great. He wants to be one of the greatest ever.”