Dodgers Pulled Out All the Stops in Yoshinobu Yamamoto Meeting, Including Shohei Ohtani
The Dodgers met with coveted free agent starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Tuesday at Dodger Stadium. Yamamoto has been a target of L.A. all offseason, as they look to bolster their starting rotation.
Dodgers insider Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic is reporting that the team pulled out all the stops during their meeting with Yamamoto. They had Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Will Smith and the newest Dodger Shohei Ohtani helping pitch the team.
"Betts, whom Yamamoto is said to be fond of as a player, was in attendance. So was Freeman, the fellow MVP candidate who represented the franchise’s biggest-ever free-agent splash until this week. There was also his potential future catcher, Will Smith. But the most notable name was the newest Dodger, who will be officially introduced at a press conference on Thursday afternoon."
This is massive news in the team's hope of landing Yamamoto this offseason. It shows how serious they are about landing him, and he would be a complete game-changer for the team.
Yamamoto is regarded by many as the best pitcher to come out of Japan, and he has electric stuff on the mound. It has previously been reported that Yamamoto would love to play alongside another Japanese star, and he is quite familiar with Ohtani.
"Ohtani, Yamamoto’s teammate with Samurai Japan during last spring’s World Baseball Classic, attended the meeting. Just two weeks ago, he’d been on the other end of such a reception, one that Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said didn’t involve any players and instead focused on reinforcing what Ohtani already knew about the franchise."
It has also been reported that Yamamoto grew up a Dodgers fan and that he may have a preference to play on the West Coast. All these signs point toward the Dodgers being the logical choice for him.
However, there are many teams involved in the bidding for Yamamoto. It remains to be seen if he will land in Los Angeles, but having all this star power at the meeting can't hurt their chances.
