As the Yoshinobu Yamamoto sweepstakes near an end, the Mets remain deeply involved.
Mets owner Steve Cohen and his wife, Alex, hosted the Japanese righthander and a group of Mets decision-makers for dinner at their home in Greenwich, Connecticut, on Saturday night, sources confirmed to Newsday on Sunday morning. President of baseball operations David Stearns, manager Carlos Mendoza and pitching coach Jeremy Hefner also were present.
That was at least the second meal shared by Yamamoto, the most highly-sought-after pitcher on the free-agent market, and the Mets. Before the winter meetings this month, Cohen and Stearns flew to Japan to meet Yamamoto and his family, Stearns said afterward.
Yamamoto has until Jan. 4 to sign with a major-league team, but it is widely predicted that he will make his decision well before then. One person involved in the wooing indicated that the bidding process is expected to escalate this week.
The Mets are far from alone in their pursuit of the 25-year-old. For the past week-plus, Yamamoto has been in the U.S. meeting with interested clubs, reportedly mostly in Southern California. The agency representing Yamamoto, Wasserman, is based out of Los Angeles.
The Yankees, for example, visited with Yamamoto and his representatives last Monday (and were expected to do so again while he was in the tri-state area, SNY reported). The others that have done so, according to various reports, are basically the richest, biggest-market teams in the sport: the Dodgers, Giants, Red Sox and Phillies.
Yamamoto has been the Mets’ top target all offseason, a potential front-of-the-rotation pitcher and the sort of arm they plainly need after the departures of Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander.
Stearns said this month after signing Luis Severino to a one-year, $13 million contract that the Mets still want to add at least one more starter. Their rotation currently consists of Kodai Senga, Jose Quintana, Severino and a couple of question…
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