Quick thoughts on the latest Yoshinobu Yamamoto rumors

This is Day 30 of Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s 45-day posting window. All indications are his meetings are over – Yamamoto met with the Yankees in Los Angeles last Monday and again in New York (at Yankee Stadium?) this past Sunday – and the bidding process began in earnest this week. With any luck, he’ll sign before Christmas and we can all move on with our lives.

Here are the latest Yamamoto rumors via Jack Curry, Jack Harris, Bob Klapisch, Jon Morosi, Jeff Passan, and Mike Puma.

• Yamamoto began taking formal contract offers Monday. His representatives asked clubs for preliminary offers early in the process so they could see who was serious, and weed out teams that were interested but weren’t going to make competitive offers.
• It’s been said Yamamoto wants to pitch on the “biggest stage,” and who knows what that means. The Yankees are the sport’s most iconic franchise, but the biggest stage to him could be the one that features Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and Shohei Ohtani.
• The Dodgers are considering a bid in the $250M to $300M range. That feels like the get in price at this point, but who knows what the contract structure will be with the Dodgers and their big deferrals and all that.
• Yamamoto has unique training and preparation methods (read Passan’s article) and the Yankees apparently told him they won’t interfere or change anything.
• There is a “growing sense” Yamamoto will not sign until after Christmas, and maybe not until after New Years. Groan.

A $300M contract, which seems likely at this point, would come with a $46M+ posting fee. Ken Rosenthal (subs. req’d) says the posting fee will be paid in installments. The first 50% is due within 14 days, the next 25% is due within 12 months, and the final 25% is due within 18 months. That eases the burden a bit, though I doubt that changes Yamamoto’s market in any way.

Yamamoto’s feelings are the great unknown and there’s so much conflicting information out there. One day you hear he prefers one thing, the next day it’s something else. It’s exhausting. We simply don’t know whether Yamamoto considers New York and the Yankees the biggest stage, if he’s okay playing second fiddle to Ohtani with the Dodgers, or countless other things.

The Yankees went 82-80 in 2023, so they have to do more selling than usual here. They have to sell Yamamoto on this past season being a blip, which it was compared to 2017-22 but may not be when you look at their recent decision-making, and on joining a team where he will not be the ace. At least not initially. Gerrit Cole is and will continue to be the No. 1, and get that spotlight.

They could also (probably did?) try to sell Yamamoto on the idea of helping the Yankees return to prominence. That was part of the pitch to CC Sabathia back in the day. Yeah, we’re the Yankees, but we need you to get us back to dominating the sport. Being the guy who puts the Yankees back on top could appeal to Yamamoto. It did Sabathia. It did many others. Fingers crossed it works here.

I really, really, really hope that nugget about Yamamoto possibly not signing until after Christmas (or worse, New Years) is wrong. I get it, this is a major life decision, but COME ON man. Sign Thursday, press conference Friday, on a plane back to Japan Saturday. Sound good? These things have a way of coming together quickly. I sincerely hope they do here, one way or another.