Morning Briefing: Yamamoto Bidding Expected to Ramp Up

Good morning!

The bidding for Yoshinobu Yamamoto is expected to ramp up this week. ESPN’s Jeff Passan said that while reports that teams already made $300 million offers were premature, bidding for Yamamoto’s services was set to begin this week.

Multiple reporters have said Yamamoto is expected to decide by Christmas–well before his Jan. 4 deadline after being posted. The Mets were one of two teams that Yamamoto requested second meetings with.

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The Mets acquired reliever Yohan Ramirez from the White Sox for cash. While he has no options remaining, Ramirez is still in his pre-arbitration years and will make the MLB minimum.

Latest MLB News

Starter Martin Perez signed a one-year, $8 million deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates, according to Robert Murray.

A couple of smaller transactions made on Monday:

The Orioles traded for Jonathan Heasley from the Royals for pitching prospect Cesar Espinal.
The Diamondbacks claimed reliever Collin Snider off waivers from the Royals.
Chance Adams signed a deal with the Rockies with an invite to spring training.
Lefty Tom Pannone signed a similar deal with the Cubs. (Jon Heyman reported both deals.)
The Giants signed Tom Murphy to a two-year deal to be their backup catcher.

In non-Mets Yamamoto news, Bryce Harper was reportedly part of the Phillies’ first meeting. However, it came via FaceTime.

And in the name of recruiting players, Shohei Ohtani sent a video to Tyler Glasnow promising he’d “hit a bunch of home runs” for him. “So cool to get that video,” Glasnow said (via Fabian Ardaya). “It definitely added a lot of points for me to go to the Dodgers. I think his recruitment worked.”

After trading for Matt Carpenter and $4 million of his salary, the Atlanta Braves released the 38-year-old. (The trade was really for reliever Ray Kerr and the Braves ate part of his salary.) In other Braves news, Jeff Francouer is stepping back from his regular color commentary for the team. C.J. Nitkowski will take his place as the primary color guy for the team.

The Red Sox will induct Dustin Pedroia, Jonathan Papelbon and Trot Nixon into their Hall of Fame this year.