Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the top pure pitcher on the free-agent market, has agreed to terms with the Los Angeles Dodgers on a 12-year deal worth $325 million, CBS Sports HQ insider Jim Bowden has confirmed. That figure makes this the largest contract in MLB history ever given to a pitcher, edging out Gerrit Cole’s $324 million deal with the Yankees. Yamamoto had been posted for MLB consideration by Japan’s Orix Buffaloes earlier in the offseason, and Yamamoto’s ex-NPB team will now receive a posting fee of just over $50 million from the Dodgers.
The bidding for Yamamoto picked up momentum earlier on Thursday, and the Dodgers, Yankeesand Mets solidified their standing as the favorites in those final hours. In the end, though, Yamamoto chose to join countryman Shohei Ohtani in LA. Ohtani earlier this month signed a $700 million contract with the Dodgers that included salary deferrals on a massive, heretofore unseen scale. That flexibility permitted the Dodgers to continue spending in such a manner, and indeed that was the expectation when Ohtani signed the record pact. Speaking of deferrals, Ken Rosenthal reports that Yamamoto’s deal has none and includes a $50 million signing bonus, as well as opt outs after 2029 and 2031. The deal is somewhat backloaded.
According to SNYthe Mets matched the Dodgers’ $325 million figure with their offer, and the Yankees offered $300 million.
Yamamoto, 25, had been one of the most decorated and accomplished pitchers in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league. In seven seasons spent with the Orix Buffaloes, he compiled a 1.72 ERA and a 4.56 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He’s a three-time Eiji Sawamura Award winner (think: the NPB version of the Cy Young Award) and a five-time NPB All-Star Game representative.
Yamamoto is a five-time All-Star, a three-time ERA champion, and a two-time Triple Crown champion in NPB. Last year, he won the Pacific League’s equivalents of the MVP and Cy Young Awards. He is, in our estimation, the best pitcher in the world to have never suited up for an MLB team. Oh, and he just celebrated his 25th birthday in August. Talent evaluators have raved to CBS Sports about Yamamoto for years, citing his high-grade command over a good arsenal as the most impressive part of his game. He throws a mid-90s fastball about half the time, complementing it with a swing-and-miss splitter and a high-spin curveball. Each of those pitches went for a strike at least 65% of the time this season, reinforcing the notion that he paints with a fine-tip brush. There’s more than enough precedent to feel confident in Yamamoto making an easy adjustment to the MLB ball and schedule.
Masahiro Tanaka had previously held the record for the richest contract given to a Japanese pitcher. Tanaka signed a seven-year deal worth $155 million with the New York Yankees in January 2014, and Yamamoto’s deal more than doubles it.
With the Dodgers, Yamamoto joins a juggernaut roster that, in addition to Ohtani, also features perennial MVP candidates Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. Dave Roberts’ squad has notched three straight 100-win seasons and has made the postseason 11 straight years.
Even after adding right-hander Tyler Glasnow via trade with the Rays, however, the Dodgers still needed a stabilizing presence in the rotation. Yamamoto profiles as just that and then some, and he’ll front a rotation that also includes Walker Buehler in his return season from Tommy John surgery and promising youngsters Bobby Miller and Emmet Sheehan. A reunion with franchise legend Clayton Kershaw, who’s once again a free agent, also may still be a possible.
Whatever finishing touches the Dodgers put on their $1 billion offseason, they figure to head into 2024 as the overwhelming favorites to win the World Series. They had the shortest odds, at +350, as of Friday morning.
