HOUSTON — Tatsuya Imai, the crown jewel of the Houston Astros’ catastrophic winter, is being moved to the bullpen.

Manager Joe Espada announced Friday that Imai will be available in relief for the team’s critical series against the American League West-leading Texas Rangers. Imai’s next scheduled turn in the rotation would have been in Sunday’s series finale.

“Eventually I want to be back as a starter. The Astros signed me as a starter, so that’s how I want to perform,” Imai said through an interpreter. “But as of right now, that’s what the team decided. I just want to perform well and get the win for the team.”

Houston signed Imai to a three-year, $54 million contract this offseason in hopes he could stabilize the middle of its top-heavy starting rotation. Imai’s difficulty adjusting to everything about Major League Baseball — from the time of his meals to differences in mound quality — has made that impossible.

Imai has a 5.83 ERA and has failed to finish five innings in eight of his 15 starts. In three of them, the 28-year-old right-hander has not escaped the first inning. Imai recorded just two outs in his last start on Monday against the Los Angeles Angels, after which he met with team officials to discuss his future in the rotation.

A clause in Imai’s contract allows the Astros to option him to the minor leagues, but only if he offers his consent. Asked on Friday if the topic had been broached with him, Imai said it had not. Earlier this week, Espada said, “I think Imai has shown that he belongs at the major-league level.”

Imai is one of six offseason pitching additions general manager Dana Brown made to the Astros’ major-league roster. Imai is the third of them to be removed from Houston’s starting rotation for poor performance. The three others have been designated for assignment.

“Even though I’m moving to the bullpen, I just want to perform for the team and get the win for the team,” Imai said.

Espada did not elaborate on the team’s plans for Imai after the Rangers series, but Imai’s wild inconsistency — coupled with a shrinking calendar and pursuit of a playoff spot — will make it difficult for the club to start him in any game of significance.

The return of both Hayden Wesneski and Ronel Blanco from Tommy John surgery already intensified scrutiny on Imai, whose hold on a rotation spot seemed tenuous when the second half began. That Cristian Javier threw five scoreless innings in relief of Imai on Monday only made Houston’s decision easier.

Javier is the most logical candidate to replace Imai in the starting rotation on Sunday. Houston could also pitch breakout right-hander Peter Lambert on four days of rest. Both Lambert and Javier threw bullpen sessions on Friday afternoon at Daikin Park.

“We’re going to work on a couple things we noticed in (Imai’s) last start and try to get him going that way,” Espada said. “Hopefully we can give him a few innings during this series, but if not, I think we have a pretty good plan here moving forward.”

“Hopefully this is something that we just do for a short period of time, but as we move forward and we’re trying to line up against the Rangers, Blue Jays, moving forward, that’s the decision we’ve made for now.”

Imai’s move to the bullpen may also endanger some innings incentives in his contract, which contains opt-outs after this season and next. Given his performance this season, Imai will almost certainly opt in for 2027, when he is scheduled to make $18 million.

Imai can receive a $2 million raise in 2027 for reaching each of 80, 90 and 100 innings pitched in 2026 — making it possible for $6 million in extra earnings and a $24 million total salary.

Imai, who has thrown 58 2/3 innings this season, now faces long odds to attain additional compensation.

Former Rangers striker Steven Thompson agreed with McInnes that there is no need to panic.

“It’s not the result Rangers wanted, but it is a point away from home at a difficult venue,” he said on BBC Radio Scotland. “Other teams will come here and find it very difficult.

“At this point in the season, there’s no knee-jerk [reaction] or anything here.

“It’s not what McInnes wants, but it’s the first game of the season. There will be time to judge once he gets the players he wants and once he gets more work done on the training ground.

“He will have learned a lot from his players tonight.”

On a night where Pandur, centre-back Ben Godfrey and former Hearts duo Cammy Devlin and Lawrence Shankland all made their debuts from the start, it was a glimpse into what this new-look Rangers side might look like under McInnes.

Summer signings Dan Neil and Ross McCrorie also came on as substitutes and McInnes made it clear there will be further additions in the weeks to come.

However, former Rangers man Andy Halliday saw what he believes to have been flaws in McInnes’ tactical set-up.

“No matter how many defenders you play with, the main fundamental is being compact, and I thought Rangers were the furthest thing from compact,” he said on Sportsound.

“All the best individuals, other than Thelo Aasgaard, were Dundee United players.

“Rangers are a work in progress, I think they’ll still make additions to try and improve, but it certainly wasn’t the start they were looking for.”

FIFA has held top-level discussions in the past 24 hours about how Gianni Infantino can backtrack on his plot to sell a stake in its commercial and event operations while seeking to hold down his position as president.

Infantino’s secret plan has attracted major opposition from UEFA, CONCACAF and Asia, with the European confederation saying all 55 of its members would boycott FIFA competitions, including World Cups, if the proposal remains on the table.

FIFA responded with a statement at 4.12am BST on Friday (11.12pm ET Thursday), in which it insisted “nobody is selling football” and that while it “acknowledges and respects feedback and concern aired in public”, it would press on with the proposals, adding that it “reaffirms its commitment to an open and democratic consultation.”

But no sooner had it done that when the Asian federation (AFC) followed up with a statement saying it stood in solidarity with UEFA and Concacaf, the North and Central American confederation.

Infantino was then dealt two seismic internal blows.

First his adviser Carlos Cordeiro quit his role, eviscerating the plan in a statement, which said it was “a bad deal for FIFA’s Member Associations, a bad deal for football, and a bad deal for the long-term future of the game.”

Then FIFA’s chief operating officer Kevin Lamour told The Associated Press that staff had been “deceived” by Infantino and that he would be able to sleep well by speaking out on the matter, even if it meant losing his job.

“It is the project of one person,” Lamour said. “Not only must this project not go ahead … but the time has now come for football political leaders to ask themselves the right questions and make the right decisions.”

Those developments have dragged Infantino into a corner and FIFA has been giving serious consideration to abandoning or watering down the project, leaving many within the organization to believe it is when, rather than if, the cord will be cut.

As of Friday night, Joshua Kushner’s venture capital firm Thrive had not pulled out of the deal, but the matter was with FIFA’s leadership as it weighed whether to double down once again or pull the plug.

Kushner has been at the centre of Infantino’s plans (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)

CONMEBOL, South America’s football confederation, issued a statement late on Friday which did not reject the plans but said that financial and commercial decisions “must always serve the interests of football and never take precedence over its essence.”

The three federations which went on record against FIFA’s plan consist of 137 of the 211 FIFA member associations. FIFA had said it would need a majority of its 211 member associations and approval from its 37-strong FIFA Council — which includes Infantino and the eight FIFA vice presidents — in order for the proposal to advance.

World football’s governing body has received significant backlash since announcing on Tuesday that it wanted to set up a new private entity — FIFA Forward Enterprises (FFE) — which would run its main events, such as the World Cups and Club World Cups, and that it was looking to sell a 21 per cent minority stake in FFE to outside investors.

That sale would aim to bring in $4.2billion (£3.2bn), which FIFA said could be immediately released to its 211 member associations as part of a new funding stream called the FIFA Fast-Forward Programme (FFFP).

Under the plan, FIFA’s total development funding would top $10bn over the next four years. FIFA confirmed that if member associations are opposed to the FFE plan but the proposal passes, those opposed will still receive $20million (£14.9m) each in the 2027-30 cycle (followed by $22m in 2031-34 and $24m in 2035-38), irrespective of whether any stake in FFE is sold to private investors.

However, if that member association agrees to the FFE proposal, it will receive $40million in 2027-30, with the subsequent payments to remain the same.

UEFA’s 55 members — which include England, Spain, France and Germany — agreed to boycott FIFA tournaments while the FFE proposal existed (Harold Cunningham / AFP via Getty Images)

In a letter sent to associations, which The Athletic has seen, FIFA president Infantino says a decision on the proposal must be made by September 19 in order for any future funds to be available from January 1.

The Athletic reported that Infantino’s future leadership of FIFA was questioned during the meetings of UEFA and Concacaf on Thursday. Infantino has been FIFA president since succeeding Sepp Blatter in February 2016, and had been expected to stand unopposed in the next election in March 2027.

“My clear impression at the moment is that he has lost a great deal of trust,” Lise Klaveness, the president of the Norwegian Football Federation, told VG. “We didn’t vote for him last time, and we’ve been sceptical about this. There are many good things about FIFA, but if you take a lax approach to governance principles and rules, you quickly lose trust.”