Yankees Get Timeline For Pursuit of Japanese Star

Yoshinobu Yamamoto and his agents have told the New York Yankees how their pursuit of the pitcher will unfold.

The picture of how the New York Yankees may pursue Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the coming weeks have become clearer.

And it’s clear the free-agent pitcher and his representation will be calling the shots, and for interested MLB teams it could feel more like a job interview than wooing a free agent.

According to SNY, the first stage of the process will start next week and all MLB general managers need is a Zoom account or a phone.

Each team that has expressed interested will get that call with Yamamoto and his representatives, which are led by Joel Wolfe at Wasserman. He told the Kyodo News earlier this week that anywhere from “11 to 14 teams” reached out to him about Yamamoto in the first 24 hours after he was posted by the Orix Buffaloes.

So, Wolfe will be on the phone a lot next week.

After that, Yamamoto is expected to arrive in the U.S. for in-person meetings. Theoretically, those meetings will be with who they consider to be the “finalists” for his services.

But the timing of those meetings gives Yamamoto leverage. He’s not expected to meet with teams until after the winter meetings, set for Dec. 4-7 in Nashville.

So Yamamoto won’t be setting off a frenzy at the winter meetings unless he unexpectedly shows up. It also means that teams that are interested in him will have to make calculations based on their interest in Yamamoto and their interests in other pitchers, either in free agency or by trade.

For teams that have ruled Yamamoto out, or that Yamamoto has ruled out, they may have more freedom to make moves on other pitching targets in Nashville and in the days after the meetings break.

That could give Yamamoto and his representatives a bit more leverage with his final suitors, even if Yamamoto is already expected to command a contract in excess of $200 million.

Yamamoto recently wrapped up play in the Japan Series, their country’s equivalent of the World Series. His final game saw him strike out 14 hitters in Game 6, which set a series record.

Just 25 years old, Yamamoto has a 70-29 record. He has a mid-90s fastball, but he is best known for an array of breaking pitches that can befuddle hitters. This season he had just a 1.21 ERA. He also went 16-6 and struck out 169 hitters in 164 innings.

Yamamoto has thrown two no-hitters in his career. He’s also won gold medals for Japan in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.