Has it become advantageous for the New York Mets, who have Kodai Senda? Yoshinobu Yamamoto appears to want to play with Japanese players.
On the 23rd (Korean time), CodyP Baseball of the United States reported that Yamamoto’s agent wanted to play with a Japanese player.
Yamamoto, Japan’s best pitcher, has reportedly already been contacted by up to 15 teams. Among these, it is expected that the New York Mets and LA Dodgers will engage in a two-way match.
The New York Mets have a Japanese pitcher, Senga. However, the LA Dodgers do not have any players from Japan. Also, Steve Cohen’s New York Mets will not fall behind in the money fight.
Initially, there was an opinion that Yamamoto preferred a team from the West Coast of the United States. However, this turned out to be unfounded.
Among big market teams, excluding the New York Mets, that have Japanese players include the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs.
Yamamoto, an orthodox right-handed pitcher, has already conquered Japanese professional baseball by winning four gold medals for three consecutive years and winning the Sawamura Award for three consecutive years. He also pitched two no-hitter games.
Yamamoto pitched 164 innings in 23 games this season, recording 16 wins, 6 losses, and an ERA of 1.21. 169 strikeouts. He won the Triple Crown as well as the winning percentage leader.
He throws a four-seam fastball that travels a whopping 160 km and a splitter that travels up to 150 km. In addition, he uses a slider, cut fastball, and even a curve.
In particular, the splitter’s 20-80 scale was evaluated at 70 points. This means that he is the top splitter in the major league. As a result, rumors of a $200 million contract continue to emerge.
His weakness is his relatively small body. Yamamoto is 178cm tall and weighs 80kg, which makes him very small compared to major league pitchers who are over 190cm tall.
The total contract size is expected to be more than $200 million. Yamamoto is expected to receive a larger contract than Blake Snell, who won the National League Cy Young Award.
Yamamoto said he would like to play on the same team as a Japanese player. It remains to be seen how much of this will be reflected when concluding actual contracts. 사설토토 ~