Credit: Andy Marlin-USA TODAY Sports

In the Mets continued pursuit to add pitching depth, they made a trade on Monday to acquire Jordan Yamamoto from the Miami Marlins for infielder Frederico Polanco. Yamamoto was designated for assignment by the Marlins last week after two underwhelming seasons pitching out of their rotation.

Still, there is a lot of potential for the 24-year-old to improve, as he still hasn’t even pitched 100 innings at the big league level.

Overview

Yamamoto was born and raised in Hawaii, where he played high school baseball at Saint Louis High School in Honolulu. After committing to play college baseball at the University of Arizona, Yamamoto was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 12th round of the 2014 MLB Draft. He chose to forgo his scholarship and sign with the Brewers.

During his first few years pitching in Rookie-ball, Yamamoto struggled pitching to a 6.46 ERA across two seasons. Then in 2016, Yamamoto found success in Low-A, pitching to a 3.82 ERA with 152 strikeouts in 134 1/3 innings pitched.

The right-hander began the 2017 season pitching for the Carolina Mudcats in High-A and had a breakout season. He made 18 starts (22 games) and pitched to a 2.51 ERA with 113 strikeouts in 111 innings pitched.

During the offseason following his standout campaign, Yamamoto was included as one of the headlining prospects in the trade that sent Christian Yelich from the Miami Marlins to the Milwaukee Brewers.

In his first year pitching in the Marlins farm system, Yamamoto combined to pitch to a 1.83 ERA across 13 starts between three levels. He finished the season in Double-A and was added to the Marlins 40-man roster following the season.

Finally in 2019, Yamamoto made his MLB debut in place of injured starter Jose Urena. In his debut, Yamamoto blanked the St. Louis Cardinals for seven innings, earning his first big league victory. Five days later, Yamamoto faced the same lineup and once again kept St. Louis off the board for seven innings in a win.

Through his first seven starts, Yamamoto pitched to a 1.59 ERA, striking out 34 batters across 34 innings pitched. Unfortunately the wheels started to fall off for the native Hawaiian on July 21, against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Dodgers tagged Yamamoto for five runs in just four innings pitched, which began a real rough patch for the rookie. He would go on to allow four runs or more in each of his next four starts and would finish the season with a 4.46 ERA across 15 starts.

Matters only got worse for Yamamoto during the shortened 2020 season, as he spent a majority of the campaign at the Marlins alternate site. During his brief stint on the active roster, Yamamoto yielded 23 earned runs and eight home runs in just 11 1/3 innings pitched.

Pitch Arsenal

Jordan Yamamoto has six offerings, but relies primarily on a four-pitch mix which includes a fastball, slider, cutter and curveball. Along with those pitches, Yamamoto also mixed in a sinker 10% of the time, while also hurling the occasional changeup.

According to Baseball Savant, Yamamoto’s fastball velocity was slightly down this year, albeit in a very small sample size. His average fastball velocity was just 89.7 mph, after coming in at 91.7 mph in 2019.

Yamamoto’s best pitch is clearly his slider, which he throws 23% of the time. In 2019, Yamamoto’s slider carried a 36.3 whiff%. That season, his slider’s average vertical movement was 5.7 inches better than the average slider, with a horizontal movement that was 4.4 inches better.

Despite his struggles, those trends continued this past season as well.

Outlook

The New York Mets have done a great job adding depth pieces to fill out their 40-man roster. The depth that has been added is of greater quality than we have seen in year’s past and Yamamoto is another example of that.

We are not that far removed from Yamamoto being a quality starting pitcher for the Marlins, so there should certainly be optimism that he can rediscover something with the Mets.

The best part of this addition is that Yamamoto still has minor league options and will not become a free agent until 2027.