Updated Post – December 6 at 3:39 pm ET
In his spiel with the media on day three of the Winter Meetings in Nashville, TN, David Stearns confirmed that he and owner Steve Cohen met with Yoshinobu Yamamoto and his family in Japan last week.
Updated Post – December 6 at 11: 59 am ET
According to Will Sammon of The Athletic, Mets owner Steve Cohen flew to Japan to personally meet with pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The sought after free agent pitcher is expected to visit the United States this weekend after Winter Meetings conclude to meet with teams in person.
Updated Post – December 3 at 8:28 pm ET
According to Andy Martino of SNY, the Mets are indeed “still in” on starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto. However, no deal is expected while at Winter Meetings in Nashville.
Additionally, Mike Puma of the NY Post reported that Yamamoto is expected to come to the United States within the next week to meet with teams. He confirmed the Mets will indeed be one of those he meets with.
Updated Post – December 3 at 6:22 pm ET
According to Susan Slusser of the SF Chronicle, there is, “an awful lot of buzz on the Giants and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.” She continued by explaining, “some other teams in the hunt for him think the Giants might have an edge.”
Original Post –
This offseason, we will finally get to the clash between New York’s two baseball franchises for a player in free agency. Both the New York Yankees and the New York Mets are expected to be aggressive in pursuing Japanese right-handed pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
On Tuesday, it was announced that Yamamoto became only the third player in history, and first since Ichiro in the mid-90s, to win the Pacific League MVP Award for the third straight season. Yamamoto added the third straight MVP to his award case, which already included his third consecutive Sawamura Award (Cy Young-equivalent) and third straight Golden Glove.
MLB Trade Rumors predict that Yamamoto will get a nine-year, $225 million deal, the largest ever for a Japanese player coming to play in Major League Baseball. The record is currently the $155 million the Yankees signed right-handed pitcher Masahiro Tanaka to back in 2004.
Not only is Yamamoto the best pitcher in Japan, but he’s also only 25 years old and won’t cost teams the penalties tied to pitchers who got the qualifying offer, like Blake Snell and the recently signed Sonny Gray. The team that signs Yamamoto must pay a posting fee in addition to the agreed-upon contract. The fee is 20% of the contract’s first $25MM, 17.5% of the next $25MM, and 15% of any dollars after that that goes to the Orix Buffaloes, Yamamoto’s former team.
Yukihito Taguchi-USA TODAY Sports
In statistical terms, Yamamoto has been dominant in Japan, with a 1.44 ERA over his last three seasons. His highest WHIP during that stretch is 0.93 in 2022, and he hasn’t allowed more than a 6.4 H/9 ratio since his first season as an 18-year-old in 2017. His career BB/9 is 2.0, and he’s only allowed 36 home runs in 967 innings. A reminder that he’s only 25.
Outside of Japanese stud Kodai Senga, the Mets rotation is a huge question mark. They also have José Quintana penciled in, though he missed half of the 2023 season and will be 35 years old on Opening Day. After Senga and Quintana, the Mets have depth pieces in Tylor Megill, Joey Lucchesi, and David Peterson. Still, Megill and Lucchesi haven’t shown an entire season of consistency at the big league level, and Peterson will start the year on the injured list following hip surgery.
Senga could help the Mets off the mound, too, as the NL Rookie of the Year runner-up has made it known he would like Yamamoto to come to Flushing and will help the team recruit.
The Mets do have a quintet of pitching prospects —Mike Vasil, Dominic Hamel, Blade Tidwell, Christian Scott, and Tyler Stuart — that pitched well in 2023 and finished the season in the upper minors. That said, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns already said he doesn’t expect any of them to help at the big league level to start the season. That means the Mets probably need to add at least three starters this offseason, with one of them being a projected frontline arm like Yamamoto.
Yamamoto is expected to meet with teams via Zoom this week and into the Winter Meetings in Nashville next week. Yamamoto’s agent, Joel Wolfe, said that Yamamoto would return to the States at some point after the meetings. Teams have until January 4 to negotiate with the Japanese star. Of course, the Mets and Yankees won’t be the only teams pursuing Yamamoto, with the San Francisco Giants and Boston Red Sox both reportedly going to be aggressive in signing the star right-hander.
The Mets and Yankees have the advantage of deep pockets, the Mets even more so with Steve Cohen already proving that he’s willing to spend big and this looks like the offseason that we will finally see the two franchises battle for a star player.
