Yoshinobu Yamamoto was on the mound for the Los Angeles Dodgers as they began their 2025 season with the Tokyo Series against the Chicago Cubs. The start came just under one year — 362 days — from his MLB debut in Seoul, South Korea, where Yamamoto turned in a disastrous outing.
Yamamoto started the second of two games against the San Diego Padres in the Seoul Series, but he was only able to pitch one inning as he allowed five runs. This time, Yamamoto reversed those results, throwing five innings while allowing just one run to the Cubs at the Tokyo Dome.
The 26-year-old had all his pitches working and commanded them well. Yamamoto’s splitter stuck out as he fooled Cubs’ hitters with it on his way to striking out four batters.
As Yamamoto now embarks on his second season, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is expecting big things from the right-handed ace.
“I think last year to this year, the confidence, the conviction that he has in throwing the fastball in the strike zone, he’s much more convicted,” Roberts said after the Dodgers’ Opening Day win. “You saw that tonight. If he can do that, obviously health, I see no reason why he won’t be in the Cy Young conversation this season.”
Yamamoto is undoubtedly one of baseball’s best pitchers, so being in the Cy Young race should be the expectation. However, the National League is filled with elite pitchers, including in the Dodgers rotation with Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, and eventually Shohei Ohtani.
It was hard to ask for more from Yamamoto in his first season at the Major League level. He posted a 3.00 ERA and 2.61 FIP while striking out 28.5% of hitters and walking just 6% in 90 innings.
He was limited by a shoulder injury during his rookie season, but Yamamoto showed the talent that the Dodgers saw when they made him the highest paid pitcher in MLB history.
If he is able to put up similar numbers to his 2024 season but over more innings, Yamamoto would likely finish in the top-five of NL Cy Young Award voting. If he takes a step forward, Yamamoto could be the favorite to win the award.
That improvement could be as simple as avoiding a blowup start throughout the season. Following his disastrous debut outing, Yamamoto finished the year with a 2.53 ERA in 89 innings.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto part of MLB history
With Yamamoto starting for the Dodgers and Shota Imanaga going for the Cubs, it marked the first-ever Opening Day matchup featuring two Japanese-born starting pitchers.
“I don’t think there was a Japanese baseball player in Japan that didn’t watch this game tonight,” Roberts said. “I’m sure they can see themselves in this situation. Like I’ve said before, right now is as good as the Japanese players as a whole have been compared to Major League Baseball.
“Certainly, washing Yoshinobu and Imanaga tonight, I’m sure they envisioned themselves in that same position.”
Previously, multiple Japanese-born pitchers started on Opening Day in 2017 (Masahiro Tanaka, New York Yankees and Yu Darvish, Texas Rangers); 2021 (Kenta Maeda, Minnesota Twins and Darvish, San Diego Padres); and 2022 (Ohtani, Los Angeles Angels and Darvish, Padres).
Imanaga and Yamamoto became the eighth and ninth Japanese-born starting pitchers to take the mound on Opening Day (19 overall starts, including 2025), joining Hideo Nomo (2000, 2003-2004); Daisuke Matsuzaka (2008); Hiroki Kuroda (2009); Tanaka (2015-2017, 2019); Darvish (2017, 2021-2022, 2024); Maeda (2021); and Ohtani (2022-2023).
Yusei Kikuchi is also set to start Opening Day for the Los Angeles Angels this year. That would make 2025 the first season to feature at least three Japanese-born starting pitchers on Opening Day.
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