Prior to signing a record-setting contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Yoshinobu Yamamoto reportedly due widespread interest from several teams.
Yamamoto and his agent, Joel Wolfe of Wasserman, initially met with teams over Zoom before paring down the list of interested clubs for in-person visits after the Winter Meetings in Nashville.
Yamamoto’s robust market ultimately was believed to have comprised of the Boston Red Sox, San Francisco Giants, Dodgers, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Toronto Blue Jays New York Yankees as varying degrees of finalists.
As his free agency process came to an end, the Dodgers, Mets and Yankees were the teams left competing to sign the 25-year-old.
Meanwhile, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow confirmed the Red Sox did make some effort to sign Yamamoto, according to Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com:
“Without getting too deep into the details, we pursued a number of of starting pitchers, he being one of them,” Breslow said. “Ultimately, it takes both parties to align and it didn’t. But obviously he’s not the only pitcher that we’re pursuing or that we had pursued. And, our hope is we can continue to make good decisions that improve the short and long term outlook for the team.”
Yamamoto signed a 12-year, $325 million contract with the Dodgers that the Mets reportedly matched. The Yankees reportedly weren’t willing to exceed $300 million in their contract offer, partly due to Gerrit Cole previously holding the MLB record of richest contract for a pitcher at $324 million.
Breslow’s comments came during a media session in which he discussed the Red Sox trading Chris Sale and cash considerations to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for Vaughn Grissom. Falling short in their pursuit of Yamamoto and now trading Sale leaves the Red Sox still facing a need for starting rotation help.
Boston did come to terms with Lucas Giolito, who the Dodgers reportedly had interest in as pitching depth.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto was impressed by Giants
Despite signing with the rival Dodgers, the Giants made an impression on Yamamoto and remained involved late into his free agency process.
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