The New York Yankees have met with top pitching target Yoshinobu Yamamoto twice so far in free agency. After a year of investing time, scouting and meetings on the 25-year-old hurler, the time is coming for him to make a decision about his baseball future. And the Yankees, according to one former baseball general manager, are definitely contenders.
Jim Bowden, formerly the general manager of three Major League teams, now works for The Athletic. On X (formerly Twitter), he provided an update of what he was hearing in the field when it came to Yamamoto’s free agency. Based on what he’s hearing the Yankees are one of two favorites to land Yamamoto, along with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Bowden also expects the Yankees’ cross-town rivals, the New York Mets, or the San Francisco Giants, to make the highest bid for the right-hander. He also listed the Boston Red Sox, the Philadelphia Phillies and the Toronto Blue Jays as “back-burner” teams. As for the money, he’s expecting Yamamoto to get a deal in the $250-$300 million range that could be anywhere from eight to 12 years in length, which would put the posting fee due to his Nippon Professional Baseball Club, the Orix Buffaloes, around $50 million.
The wild card is what Yamamoto values — money, team situation, both or other factors? Yamamoto has until Jan. 4 to reach a deal. Bowden expects him to have a deal this week. Whoever signs Yamamoto will be getting a rare player, one that won three straight Pacific League MVP awards, along with three straight Sawamura Awards, which is the Japanese Cy Young. He is only the third player to win an MVP award three straight years in the NPB, along with Ichiro Suzuki and Hisashi Yamada. In 2023 Yamamoto went 16-6 with a 1.21 ERA and struck out 169 hitters in 164 innings. He threw his second career no-hitter and threw in the Japan Series, where he struck out 14 hitters in Game 6, which set a series record. Yamamoto has a 70-29 record. He has a mid-90s fastball, but he is best known for an array of breaking pitches that can befuddle hitters. He’s also won gold medals for Japan in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.
