John Heyman of the New York Post, a U.S. media outlet, said on his SNS on the 22nd (Korea time) that “Yamamoto is heading to the Dodgers.” According to ESPN’s Jeff Bankruptcy, Yamamoto’s contract is worth 325 million dollars for 12 years. 스포츠토토
Yamamoto, who attempted to advance to the Major League through the posting system after the end of this season, is currently the best right-handed pitcher in the Japanese Professional Baseball (NPB). Since his debut with the Orix Buffaloes in 2017, he pitched in 172 games, recording 70 wins, 29 losses, one save and a 1.82 ERA. He also swept the pitcher’s Triple Crown (three wins, multiple strikeouts and the top ERA) for the third consecutive year, sweeping the pitcher’s award during the same period.
This year, Yamamoto started all 23 games and recorded 16 wins and six losses with 1.21 ERA and 169 strikeouts in 164 innings with 34 walks (28 walks, 6 body hits). Despite this, he had just two homers, a batting average of 0.198 and WHIP (base hit per inning) of 0.88, recording 91.3 percent of quality starts (more than six innings and less than three earned runs per inning). This year, he also ranked first in the Pacific League’s multiple wins, ERA, most strikeouts, and winning percentage.
As a result, a number of teams have jumped into the battle to recruit Yamamoto. Mark Pinesand of MLB.com said on Tuesday that the Dodgers, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Toronto Blue Jays, and Boston Red Sox are continuing their rivalry. This happened despite the San Francisco Giants’ decision to recruit Yamamoto on the same day.
And in the end, the Dodgers became the ultimate winner. The three MVPs including Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, as well as Ohtani, who joined the team first to bring Yamamoto in person, attended the presentation at the Dodger Stadium. According to Ken Rosenthal, an interviewer with U.S. media outlet Foul Terrorist, Yamamoto is known to decide which team he wants to play for, and his sincerity has become as important as the total amount. Finally, the Dodgers mobilized MVP players worth 1.227 billion U.S. dollars, Betts (365 million dollars for 12 years), and Freeman (162 million dollars for six years) to appeal to their sincerity and charm.
Dodgers is a team that many Japanese players have already passed. Starting with Hideo Nomo (1995-1998 and 2002-2004), Dodgers players have steadily formed relationships with Japanese players. Following Nomo, Kazuhisa Ishii (2002-2004), Takashi Saito (2006-2008), Hiroki Kuroda (2008-2011), Kenta Maeda (2016-2019), and Yu Darvish (2017) have been active in Dodgers uniforms.
On top of that, Ohtani will join the Dodgers on Thursday as the best contract in the history of the four major pro sports in North America, worth 700 million U.S. dollars for 10 years. The Dodgers decided to receive most of the contract (680 million dollars) at a later date, giving the Dodgers a chance to manage the team. As a result, the Dodgers even hired Yamamoto to win the bid.