Philadelphia Phillies Among Teams Interested in Japanese Phenom

There's been one Japanese phenom in recent years doing things the MLB has never seen before. Clubs across the entire league are kicking themselves for missing out on signing Shohei Ohtani to their franchise when they had the chance.

Now, there's another phenom in Japan who is turning heads and teams are flocking to see him pitch in person.

MLB Insider Jon Heyman reports that the Philadelphia Phillies are one of those teams showing major interest in starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto. They made the trip to Japan to see him pitch on Wednesday.

The right hander impressed in the game, throwing seven scoreless innings. His pitch arsenal includes a fastball that reaches 97 mph, a cutter, curveball and splitter.

Yamamoto is coming off two consecutive seasons where he won the Eiji Sawamura Award, given out to the best pitcher in Nippon Professional Baseball, two consecutive Pacific League MVP awards and two consecutive pitching Triple Crowns for having the most wins, strikeouts and lowest ERA in the same season.

He has continued his dominance this season for the Orix Buffaloes, posting a record of 12-5 with a 1.42 ERA.

The Buffaloes are expected to make the 24-year-old phenom available for major league teams to make offers to sign him. The market is expected to be massive if that happens and could create a bidding war to land the next great pitcher.

There is no mistaking that his performances the past few years make him a phenom and MLB teams would love to bring him over to the Unites States. Along with the Phillies, nine other major league clubs were in attendance to see Yamamoto pitch in person.

His availability is something to monitor throughout the offseason as Philadelphia continues to show interest in signing him to their club.