Philadelphia Phillies Have Reportedly Made an Offer to Yamamoto

The Philadelphia Phillies have made an offer to Japanese free-agent pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, per multiple reports.

The Phillies are one of several teams that are pursuing the 25-year-old right-hander, who has emerged as the top free-agent pitcher on the market.

The Phillies met with Yamamoto last week and enlisted first baseman Bryce Harper in the pitch, who Face Timed in for the meeting.

It’s not clear what the Phillies are offering, though the Philadelphia Inquirer quoted a source that said the Phillies were expecting to be “aggressive.”

The Phillies have already signed Aaron Nola to a $172 million package over seven seasons.

Earlier Wednesday, Jim Bowden, a former general manager of three Major League teams who now works for The Athletic, handicapped the race to sign Yamamoto and called the Phillies a “back-burner” team, along with the Boston Red Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays.

Bowden projected the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers as the favorites. He also projected that the New York Mets or the San Francisco Giants would make the highest bid.

Bowden and others have projected that Yamamoto could receive a deal between $250-$300 million over anywhere from eight to 12 years.

That would not include the posting fee due to his Nippon Professional Baseball Club, the Orix Buffaloes, which is projected to be around $50 million.

Yamamoto has until Jan. 4 to reach a deal. Bowden expects him to have a deal this week.

Whoever signs Yamamoto will be getting a rare player, one that won three straight Pacific League MVP awards, along with three straight Sawamura Awards, which is the Japanese Cy Young.

He is only the third player to win an MVP award three straight years in the NPB, along with Ichiro Suzuki and Hisashi Yamada.

In 2023 Yamamoto went 16-6 with a 1.21 ERA and struck out 169 hitters in 164 innings. He threw his second career no-hitter and threw in the Japan Series, where he struck out 14 hitters in Game 6, which set a series record.

Yamamoto has a 70-29 record. He has a mid-90s fastball, but he is best known for an array of breaking pitches that can befuddle hitters. He’s also won gold medals for Japan in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.