NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto and Yoshinobu Yamamoto have been nonetheless up for grabs as group officers began to move dwelling Wednesday night following a baseball winter conferences of a lot discuss and little motion.
Ohtani, the distinctive two-way star, is anticipated to get a report contract of $500 million-plus. His agent, Nez Balelo, didn’t journey to the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center, preferring to remain away.
While Los Angeles Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts acknowledged assembly with Ohtani at Dodger Stadium earlier than heading to Nashville, different groups have been mum. Some followers tried to make use of flight-tracking packages to find out Ohtani’s whereabouts, and Toronto normal supervisor Ross Atkins sparked hypothesis of a get-together on the group’s spring coaching facility in Dunedin, Florida, when he switched a media availability on Monday to Zoom.
Ohtani has not spoken with reporters since Aug. 9, two weeks earlier than a pitching harm that required surgical procedure and can maintain him off a mound till 2025.
The Yankees, after lacking the playoffs for the primary time since 2016, have been negotiating a commerce to accumulate Soto from San Diego. The three-time All-Star can change into a free agent after subsequent yr’s World Series.
New York did make a uncommon commerce with the rival Boston Red Sox late Tuesday, buying outfielder Alex Verdugo for right-handers Greg Weissert, Richard Fitts and Nicholas Judice.
“He’s actually been a guy that we’ve talked about now for, for a while,” Yankees supervisor Aaron Boone stated. “I feel like there’s an edge he plays the game with.”
Both the Yankees and Mets are among the many groups looking for Yamamoto, a 25-year-old right-hander who was 16-6 with a 1.21 ERA this season for the Orix Buffaloes of Japan’s Pacific League. The Yankees plan to fulfill with the pitcher on Monday in California, an individual conversant in the planning advised The Associated Press, talking on situation of anonymity as a result of particulars weren’t introduced.
Mets proprietor Steve Cohen and president of baseball operations David Stearns went to Japan forward of the winter conferences to speak with Yamamoto and household.
“I think it demonstrates Steve’s commitment to do everything he possibly can to bring players to New York,” Stearns stated.
In offers that did get finalized, Baltimore agreed to a $13 million, one-year contract with nearer Craig Kimbrel, the Los Angeles Dodgers introduced a $9 million, one-year deal to maintain outfielder Jason Heyward, and World Series champion Texas signed veteran reliever Kirby Yates to a $4.5 million, one-year contract.
Agent Scott Boras, who represents Soto together with free brokers Cody Bellinger, Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery and Jung Hoo Lee, held his annual winter conferences information convention full of one-liners.
“As far as Bellinger, we know that the belly button has been pushed and there’s a lot of inners, more inners than outers no doubt,” Boras stated. “So it’s been an aggressive campaign for elite talents in these winter meetings.”
Snell adopted his 2018 AL Cy Young Award by successful this yr’s NL honor. “When you flip the coin, it always comes up … on both sides,” Boras stated.
Teams stocked up on pitching within the massive league section of the winter assembly draft of unprotected gamers, taking pitchers with eight of the ten choices — together with three from the Yankees’ system.
The Yankees misplaced a pair of right-handers within the first two picks, with Oakland taking Mitch Spence and Kansas City deciding on Matt Sauer. Texas, contemporary off its first World Series title, selected right-hander Carson Coleman from the Yankees with the No. 23 choice.
