NL East News: Phillies have offer on the table for Yoshinobu Yamamoto

Per reports, the Philadelphia Phillies have made a formal contract offer to Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

Yamamoto, our #2 player in this year's free agency class, is considered to be one of the best pitchers to ever move to MLB from Japan and is rumored to have a long list of suitors, including the division rival New York Mets.

Philadelphia, who has a robust starting rotation already and is not believed to be one of the teams to have met with Yamamoto during his recent North American tour, is not believed to be a favorite at this time.

But it's another sign that the rest of the National League East is prepared to spend significant amounts of money to chase down the Braves, winners of the last six divisional titles. Yamamoto's contract has been predicted to exceed over $300M in total value, owing to his dominance in NPB and the fact he is only 25.

The New York Mets, flexing the financial muscle of billionaire owner Steve Cohen, have reportedly met multiple times with Yamamoto, including at least once traveling to Japan to meet with the ace.

Yamamoto is highly sought after by almost every single MLB team, with reports coming out that over half of MLB has contacted his agent about signing the righty. Listed as our #2 free agent entering this offseason, behind only two-time MVP Shohei Ohtani, here's what we said about the talented pitcher:

Probably the best pitcher on the planet to not yet be in Major League Baseball, the 25 year-old Yamamoto won the NPB's equivalent of both the Cy Young and MVP last season. He's a five-time All Star, three-time ERA champion, and twice won the Triple Crown. The previous record for a player signing from Japan is 5 years & $155M, by Masahiro Tanaka in 2014, and it's about to get obliterated.

Per reports, the finalists are believed to be the Mets, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the San Francisco Giants, the Toronto Blue Jays, and the Boston Red Sox.

According to MLB's rules governing the Japanese Posting System, Yamamoto has until the end of day on January 4th to sign with his new team. Several reports, including from MLB Network's Jon Heyman, hint that Yamamoto may make his decision sometime between Christmas and New Year's Day.

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