The Los Angeles Dodgers finalized their signing of Yoshinobu Yamamoto to a record-setting 12-year, $325 million contract last week, continuing what has been a wildly successful offseason.
Yamamoto was one of the most sought-after free agents in MLB history after being posted by the Orix Buffaloes of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). The 25-year-old enjoyed a dominant career in Japan that ended with three consecutive Eiji Sawamuras and three straight Pacific League MVP Awards.
Yamamoto projects to be a potential ace in MLB despite his smaller frame that has some scouts worried about his durability. However, others are less concerned due to Yamamoto’s unique training routine that includes throwing a javelin.
“There is a guru over in Japan, some of the Japanese media know about him, his name is Yada Sensei,” agent Joel Wolfe said during Yamamoto’s introductory press conference at Dodger Stadium. “Yada Sensei will be coming over here.
“The Dodgers and Galen Carr, who was mentioned there, spent a lot of time, as did other teams, going to meet Yada Sensei over in Japan. And he does a unique style of training, both on the pitching side and the training side with Yoshinobu.
“And it’s a combination of breathing and flexibility, and yoga and core training. One of the things that the Dodgers noticed, we noticed, was a high percentage of pitchers who pitched in the WBC last year, over 80%, either regressed or sustained injuries over the course of the season.
“Yoshinobu was not one of them. He actually went the opposite direction and got better. He also really benefited from nearly all of the NPB stadiums have TrackMan and Hawkeye located in their stadium, so all of the data of every pitch he threw was sent back here to all the teams.
“So they had all of the data in addition to all the scouts that were going over there. And they were able to track how elite his stuff was and is, and how it improved. That was a big part of why so many teams were so aggressive in pursuing him.”
Yoshinobu Yamamoto will continue using javelin with Dodgers
Wolfe explained that Yamamoto plans to continue throwing a javelin as part of his training routine with the Dodgers. “You can do it right here on the field,” Wolfe began.
“One of the teams actually that had done a lot of research on him, one of the gifts they gave him was a team-logoed javelin for him to throw to show him just how deep into the research they had done, which he was very impressed with.
“But you will see what he does. It’s impressive, and it worked. And a lot of the work that he does is injury prevention-type stuff. So I think that gave the Dodgers a lot of comfort in giving them such a lengthy contract.”
In addition to his continued use of the javelin, the Dodgers are hiring Yamamoto’s trainer and have an interest in learning more about his program.
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