Report: SF Giants have scouted impending free-agent NPB star pitcher
As the SF Giants look to improve this offseason, the front office is considering a multitude of avenues to upgrade the current roster. While the most obvious paths to get better feature adding proven MLB players through trades and free agency, a recent report by Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic tied the team to Orix Buffaloes superstar pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who is expected to be posted this offseason to big-league teams.
Team Japan's Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitches Korea during the 2020 Olympics. (2021).
Yukihito Taguchi-USA TODAY Sports
"The Giants have scouted Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the hard-throwing right-hander with a world-class curveball and splitter who has won two Sawamura Awards (Japan’s analog to the Cy Young) and will be posted by the Orix Buffaloes this winter," wrote Baggarly.
Yamamoto will immediately become the most coveted international free agent to become available to MLB teams since Shohei Ohtani in the winter of 2017. Yamamoto is just 25 years old and has easily been the best pitcher outside of MLB for the past few years. Across the past seven seasons with the Buffaloes, Yamamoto has recorded a 1.83 ERA with 911 strikeouts and just 204 walks in 890 innings pitched.
Despite missing a couple of starts with a minor injury this season, Yamamoto is expected to win his third consecutive Eiji Sawamura Award this season. He currently has a 1.26 ERA across 22 starts with 158 strikeouts and 26 walks in 157 innings pitched.
Yamamoto has a fastball that primarily sits in the 92-95 mph range, although he has reached 99 mph at times. However, he has dominated hitters with some of the best command in the world, showing the ability to consistently locate all of his pitches. Yamamoto's splitter, which works in the low 90s, is easily his best pitch and generates the most consistent swings and misses. He also has a traditional curveball and the ability to play with his fastball grip to generate sink, cut, and four-seam movement.
Yamamoto has been as effective as anyone in recent NPB history at preventing his opponents from scoring. He has had a lighter workload than some previous NPB stars who have gone on to have success at the MLB level. Yu Darvish, by comparison, also came stateside after his age-24 season and had already recorded four 200-inning seasons. Yamamoto has never thrown more than 193.2 innings in a season. With that said, Shohei Ohtani and Kodai Senga never threw more than 185 innings in a season. Plus, a team could view that as a positive since he has had less stress on his arm.
Despite signing Masanori Murakami, the first player to be signed by an MLB team out of Japan, back in 1963, the Giants have never signed a megastar out of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). While they were a finalist for Ohtani and were "heavily involved" in talks with Senga last offseason, they have yet to get a massive deal across the finish line.
While the Giants have a much clearer need to improve offensively this offseason, Yamamoto is a potentially generational talent that could give manager Gabe Kapler a rotation led by him, Logan Webb, Alex Cobb, and Kyle Harrison (Giants Top Pitching Prospect). It's easy to see how that could be enticing.
Given Yamamoto's youth and track record, he will assuredly receive a contract worth nine figures and could easily eclipse $200 million. The Giants have been seemingly hesitant to give long-term contracts out to free-agent pitchers under president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi. However, the Giants did sign Webb to a five-year, $90 million contract earlier this year, suggesting they were willing to shell out more money for a younger pitcher.
Another wrinkle to a potential pursuit of Yamamoto is a separate report from Baggarly that the SF Giants front office is looking to trade from their young pitching depth to upgrade offensively. Adding a premium starter like Yoshinobu Yamamoto would obviously make it easier to part with other valuable pitchers in a trade.
