Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, center, of the Orix Buffaloes celebrates with teammates after pitching a no-hit game against the Lotte Marines in Chiba, east of Tokyo, Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023. (Kyodo News via AP)
Japanese superstar ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto could be posted as soon as this week — the right-handed starting pitcher preparing to make the jump to Major League Baseball ahead of the 2024 season.
According to multiple reports, his Japanese team, the Orix Buffaloes, could post him as soon as Monday and could begin negotiating with teams on Tuesday.
The 25-year-old is the highest-coveted pitching-only prospect to emerge from Nippon Professional Baseball in some time — significantly more so than Kodai Senga, who finished second in NL Rookie of the Year voting this season with the Mets.
Yamamoto has already won Japan’s pitching Triple Crown three times in his young career. He just put together his finest season yet, too, to further build the immense intrigue coming from North America.
In 24 starts with the Orix Buffaloes this season, he went 17-6 with a 1.16 ERA, 0.860 WHIP, and 176 strikeouts in 171.0 innings of work. His career ERA across seven seasons in Japan is 1.72.
Those numbers are promising an exorbitant contract — one that is estimated to come in around eight years and over $200 million. That’ll call for ace-like stuff in the majors and seemingly every big-market team is going to be in the hunt for him.
That includes the Mets and Yankees, even though the exact degree of their interest isn’t completely clear.
The Mets initially appeared all-in for Yamamoto when general manager Billy Eppler was the general manager of the club. He has a strong reputation in Japan and was the executive to come away with Shohei Ohtani’s signature when he made the jump to the Los Angeles Angels.
But the arrival of David Stearns as president of baseball operations — and the departure of Eppler — clouds the Mets’ vision slightly,…
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