LOS ANGELES — Prized free-agent pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto and the Los Angeles Dodgers have agreed to a $325 million, 12-year contract, in response to a number of studies.
Yamamoto is ready to hitch Japanese countryman Shohei Ohtani with the Dodgers, who signed the two-way celebrity to a document $700 million, 10-year deal final week.
The Dodgers didn’t affirm the settlement with Yamamoto on Thursday evening. MLB.com and ESPN had been among the many shops citing nameless sources in reporting the deal.
The New York Yankees and New York Mets had been among the many many golf equipment that pursued Yamamoto.
It’s the third main pitching coup for the NL West champion Dodgers this offseason. In addition to Ohtani, the workforce signed right-hander Tyler Glasnow to a $136.5 million, five-year contract after he was traded from the Tampa Bay Rays to Los Angeles.
Ohtani made a video pitch to Glasnow to hitch him in Hollywood.
“It was important to Shohei that this wasn’t the one move we were going to make,” Dodgers President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman stated at Ohtani’s introductory information convention final week.
Yamamoto was 16-6 with a 1.21 ERA this season, hanging out 169 and strolling 28 in 164 innings. He is 70-29 with a 1.82 ERA in seven seasons with the Orix Buffaloes. Yamamoto struck out a Japan Series-record 14 in a Game 6 win over Hanshin on Nov. 5, throwing a 138-pitch full recreation. Orix went on to lose Game 7.
Orix posted the 25-year-old right-hander on Nov. 20 and Major League Baseball groups had till Jan. 4 to signal him.
Yamamoto‘s deal with the Dodgers would be the largest and longest ever guaranteed to a big league pitcher.
Ohtani was a two-time AL MVP with the Los Angeles Angels before becoming a free agent this offseason and moving to the Dodgers.
Yamamoto pitched his second career no-hitter, the 100th in Japanese big league history, on Sept. 9 for the Buffaloes against the Lotte Marines. The game, watched by MLB executives, extended his scoreless streak to 42 innings.
A two-time Pacific League MVP, Yamamoto also threw a no-hitter against the Seibu Lions on June 18 last year. His fastball averaged 95 mph and topped out at 96.6 mph in Japan’s semifinal win over Mexico on the World Baseball Classic in March. He threw 20 fastballs, 19 splitters, six curveballs, six cutters and one slider in a 3 1/3-inning reduction outing. Batters swung at 11 of his splitters and missed 4.
Following hard-throwing 21-year-old sensation Roki Sasaki, Yamamoto gave up two runs and three hits in 3 1/3 innings with 4 strikeouts and two walks, permitting Alex Verdugo’s RBI double. Yamamoto was charged with a second run when Isaac Paredes hit an RBI single off Atsuki Yuasa.
Under the MLB-NPB settlement, the posting charge shall be 20% of the primary $25 million of a significant league contract, together with earned bonuses and choices. The share drops to 17.5% of the subsequent $25 million and 15% of any quantity over $50 million. There can be a supplemental charge of 15% of any earned bonuses, wage escalators and exercised choices.
