The Orix Buffaloes of Nippon Professional Baseball officially posted Yoshinobu Yamamoto for MLB free agency last week, opening a 45-day window to negotiate with teams and sign a contract.
At just 25 years old, Yamamoto immediately became one of the top starting pitchers available. Some evaluators consider the right-hander the best free-agent pitcher, while others prefer the proven MLB track record of two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell.
Regardless, Snell and Yamamoto both figure to fare well in free agency as multiple teams are in search of starting pitching this offseason.
There’s yet to be much movement on the Yamamoto front, but he reportedly is returning to Japan and will begin the process of holding free agency meetings with interested teams, per Andy Martino of SNY:
Highly coveted Nippon Professional Baseball pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto will begin meeting with interested teams via phone or Zoom next week, as he is expected to travel back to Japan, according to two league sources briefed on his free agency process.
Yamamoto was in the United States last week and he attended a recent Los Angeles Lakers game at Crypto.com Arena.
The Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, San Diego Padres and St. Louis Cardinals are among the teams that have been connected to Yamamoto in recent weeks.
There was some belief the Yankees hindered their odds of signing Yamamoto when general manager Brian Cashman made critical remarks about Giancarlo Stanton’s injury history. That drew a response from agent Joel Wolfe of Wasserman, who represents Yamamoto as well, and referenced Cashman’s comments being a warning of sorts for international and traditional free agents.
Despite that, Yamamoto is still thought to be open to potentially signing with the Yankees. And separately, Wolfe also stated Yamamoto is open to signing with a team that already has a Japanese star on its roster. That could be of benefit for the Red Sox (Masataka Yoshida) and Padres (Yu Darvish).
Yoshinobu Yamamoto posting details
With Yamamoto officially posted, he has a deadline to sign with an MLB team by 2 p.m. PT on January 4, 2024.
The team that signs Yamamoto will be required to pay a posting fee that is equal to 20% of the contract’s first $25 million, 17.5% of the next $25 million and 15% of the additional dollars.
Yamamoto is projected to sign a contract in the neighborhood of $200 million.
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