Updated Post: Dec. 11 at 2:43 pm ET

According to Buster Olney of ESPN, free agent starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto met with the San Francisco Giants on Sunday. This comes ahead of reports that he plans to meet with the Yankees in Los Angeles on Monday.

Original Post: Dec. 7 at 11:35 am ET

Early Wednesday, Will Sammon reported David Stearns and Steve Cohen traveled to Japan to meet with NPB superstar Yoshinobu Yamamoto. In his press conference yesterday, Stearns not only confirmed the leak but spoke at length about the Mets’ ongoing pursuit of Yamamoto. He explained that Steve Cohen going on this trip “demonstrates Steve’s commitment to do everything he possibly can to bring players to New York.”

Stearns also alluded to the fact that many other teams are involved in the Yamamoto sweepstakes and that they all met with him as well. Stearns’ statement, as well as the news that Will Smamon broke yesterday, means that obtaining Yamamoto will be very challenging and extremely expensive.

Yukihito Taguchi-USA TODAY Sports

Now, however, a report from Mark Feinsand says a source told him the bidding for Yamamoto will come down to the Mets and Yankees.

“They both think they need him badly,” the source told Feinsand. “Get your popcorn ready. This could be fun.”

It’s been reported that Yamamoto and the Yankees will meet on Monday.

Will Sammon previously identified seven potential finalists for Yoshinobu Yamamoto: the Blue Jays, Dodgers, Giants, Mets, Yankees, and two “mystery teams.” While Sammon has no substantive evidence of such he opines that, “From a speculative standpoint, owner Steve Cohen distinguishes the Mets from any other club in the running for Yamamoto because he has the money to win any potential bidding war.” He was depicting the Mets as his frontrunner for acquiring the three-time Sawamura award winner.

The Mets and Yankees need someone to pair up with their top pitchers (Kodai Senga and Gerrit Cole), too.

The question is, though, would David Stearns in his first offseason with the Mets be willing to not only spend a fortune on one player, who most likely won’t even make the Mets premium contender next season?

As Sammon wrote, “It is unclear where the Mets would pivot if they don’t land Yamamoto. In the meantime, league sources said they’ve looked into pitchers on short-term deals.”  Using “short-term deals” terminology is ambiguous at best and may very well refer to the Mets aiming to take one of the top pitchers available and entice them to sign for a high AAV on a short-term contract.

This is a practice Steve Cohen is highly familiar with, using this tactic the past two offseasons to sign both Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander. It was also reportedly used to sign Jacob deGrom last offseason, but did not work out as no deal materialized.

Yamamoto will reportedly sign well before January. So even if the Mets don’t sign him, they’ll get some closure and be able to move forward with Plan B sooner rather than later. But if they do nail him down, they’ll continue on the path Stearns and Cohen had in mind to start the offseason.

Evan Mazza contributed to this report.