How Philadelphia Phillies Tried To Woo Yoshinobu Yamamoto

A recent article went into the Los Angeles Dodgers' courtship of Yoshinobu Yamamoto and included how the Philadelphia Phillies tried to lure him to town.

Mar 28, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto (18) / Jason Parkhurst-USA TODAY Sports

The Philadelphia Phillies were one of several teams that were after Japanese free-agent pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto this offseason, to the point where the Phillies made him an offer.

The 25-year-old right-hander ended up signing a massive contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, which aligned him with countryman Shohei Ohtani.

Recently, The Athletic did a deep dive into this year’s offseason, which saw the Dodgers spent more than $1 billion in money in free agency and trades in an effort to sign Ohtani and bolster their hopes of winning another World Series. The Dodgers last won a World Series in 2020.

One of the quirkier parts of the story involves Brad Paisley’s barn outside Nashville, where he hosted a get-together with Dodgers officials during baseball’s annual meetings that featured Pappy Van Winkle 23 bourbon and a visit from Tampa Bay Rays officials, a visit that accelerated the two teams’ trade talks for pitcher Tyler Glasnow.

But none of that involves the Phillies, who were in the mix with the Dodgers, the New York Yankees, the New York Mets and the San Francisco Giants in the race to sign perhaps the best pitcher to ever come out of Japan.

The Phillies didn’t have the southern California weather or the media market appeal of New York City, but they put together a presentation designed to attract Yamamoto by selling him on the enthusiasm of Phillies fans. At one point, the team showed Yamamoto a chart that detailed how won of Kyle Schwarber’s home runs in the 2022 World Series registered on the Richter scale, which is designed to measure earthquakes.

There was also the phone call between Yamamoto and Phillies superstar Bryce Harper, which was previously reported as part of the Phillies’ pitch. But Harper revealed some of the content of their 30-minute Face Time session.

“If you want to be in this market and play in front of this fan base, you’re going to reap the rewards of that,” Harper said. “We’re different than L.A. We’re different than New York. We don’t have that hoopla, the bright lights. But it’s a lot brighter in Philly in October than in any of those other places.”

Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said it didn’t take long to figure out that Yamamoto was eyeing a different path. He ended up taking the biggest contract in baseball history for a pitcher from the Dodgers.