The Yoshinobu Yamamoto sweepstakes has officially reached a full month since the Japanese ace was posted by his NPB club, the Orix Buffaloes, and there has been little clarity since.
Considering this is the most highly-touted talent other than Shohei Ohtani to make the jump from Japan to the majors, the market is understandably ravenous for the 25-year-old right-hander’s services.
The reporting, however, has been volatile. Last week it was revealed that the Boston Red Sox and San Francisco Giants already had $300 million offers on the table. That was disproven.
The seriousness of teams involved or the club deemed the front-runner has been swapped aplenty. So what do we know?
Let’s try to figure it all out here.
Who is involved?
Yamamoto has held meetings with both New York clubs, the Mets and Yankees, along with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox, San Francisco Giants, and Philadelphia Phillies.
The three-time Sawamura Award winner has had second meetings with both the Mets and the Yankees. He had dinner at Mets owner Steve Cohen’s house on Saturday before the Yankees hastily put together a second sitdown the following day.
While on the East Coast, Yamamoto did not meet with the Red Sox, which could potentially hint at where they stand at the moment.
The Dodgers rolled out all the stops for their pitch, including Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, and the newly-acquired Ohtani to speak with Yamamoto and his representation. The Phillies attempted to do the same by having Bryce Harper on a Zoom call — though that doesn’t necessarily hold the same brevity as an in-person trio of superstars.
It appears that this is a three-horse race between the Mets, Yankees, and Dodgers.
When are offers coming in?
Contrary to reports last week suggesting those mega-deals were already on the table, Yamamoto will begin getting legitimate contract offers this week.
That will come after Yamamoto narrows his list down of what teams he’ll want to negotiate with, so this shouldn’t be a free-for-all where teams from every corner of the league — or that dreaded “mystery team” — will come in and throw money at the ace.
SNY’s Andy Martino reported on Tuesday night that the Mets are “in the process of making a very serious offer,” while Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times revealed that the Dodgers are considering putting forth an offer between $250 million and $300 million.
When will he sign?
We don’t have a crystal ball and we won’t pretend like we do.
There have been conflicting reports that are using Christmas Day on Monday as the point of reference. Multiple reports in recent weeks suggested that he would sign before Christmas, but others — most notably Bob Klapisch of the Newark Star-Ledger — believe it won’t come until after the holiday.
Yamamoto has until Jan. 4 to sign with an MLB club. If not, he must return to Japan for the 2024 season.
