Yoshinobu Yamamoto has second dinner with Mets owner Steve Cohen, sources confirm
Yoshinobu Yamamoto of Japan pitches against Australia in a World Baseball Classic game at Tokyo Dome in Tokyo on March 12. Credit: AP / Eugene Hoshiko
As the Yoshinobu Yamamoto sweepstakes near an end, the Mets remain deeply involved.
Mets owner Steve Cohen and his wife, Alex, hosted the Japanese righthander and a group of Mets decision-makers for dinner at their home in Greenwich, Connecticut, on Saturday night, sources confirmed to Newsday on Sunday morning. President of baseball operations David Stearns, manager Carlos Mendoza and pitching coach Jeremy Hefner also were present.
That was at least the second meal shared by Yamamoto, the most highly-sought-after pitcher on the free-agent market, and the Mets. Before the winter meetings this month, Cohen and Stearns flew to Japan to meet Yamamoto and his family, Stearns said afterward.
Yamamoto has until Jan. 4 to sign with a major-league team, but it is widely predicted that he will make his decision well before then. One person involved in the wooing indicated that the bidding process is expected to escalate this week.
The Mets are far from alone in their pursuit of the 25-year-old. For the past week-plus, Yamamoto has been in the U.S. meeting with interested clubs, reportedly mostly in Southern California. The agency representing Yamamoto, Wasserman, is based out of Los Angeles.
The Yankees, for example, visited with Yamamoto and his representatives last Monday (and were expected to do so again while he was in the tri-state area, SNY reported). The others that have done so, according to various reports, are basically the richest, biggest-market teams in the sport: the Dodgers, Giants, Red Sox and Phillies.
Yamamoto has been the Mets’ top target all offseason, a potential front-of-the-rotation pitcher and the sort of arm they plainly need after the departures of Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander.
Stearns said this month after signing Luis Severino to a one-year, $13 million contract that the Mets still want to add at least one more starter. Their rotation currently consists of Kodai Senga, Jose Quintana, Severino and a couple of question marks.
Bringing in Yamamoto would require a commitment of hundreds of millions of dollars. The largest pitcher contract ever is the one the Yankees gave to Gerrit Cole before the 2020 season: nine years, $324 million.
Unlike Cole and other recipients of long-term deals, Yamamoto has never thrown a pitch in the majors, but he has dominated in Japan. In seven seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball, he posted a 1.82 ERA and 0.94 WHIP. He won the Sawamura Award — the equivalent of the Cy Young Award — the past three seasons.
The team that signs him will owe Yamamoto’s Japanese team, the Orix Buffaloes, a so-called release fee that is poised to climb into the tens of millions of dollars. That additional payment, which is in addition to the sum guaranteed to the pitcher, goes to the Buffaloes as compensation for losing their player.
For a contract of, say, $300 million, the release fee would be nearly $47 million.
The Mets have recent experience with a version of this courtship of a Japanese star. Around this time last year, they signed Senga to a five-year, $75 million deal. Senga’s agent, Joel Wolfe of Wasserman, also represents Yamamoto. Part of the case the Mets can make to Yamamoto involves Senga’s successful rookie season. With the help of Mets coaches and other personnel, including extensive massaging of his routine and workload, Senga finished 2023 with a 2.98 ERA and 1.22 WHIP in 29 starts.
In their first offseason under Stearns, the Mets have plenty of other areas of need. They still need an outfielder who will play regularly, multiple relievers and perhaps a DH. They’ve given out only $17 million in a trio of guaranteed contracts during the past six weeks: Severino, infielder Joey Wendle ($2 million) and reliever Jorge Lopez ($2 million).
But Yamamoto has been and still is their first priority, the hinge on which their offseason will swing, as evidenced by their Saturday night get-together, which was first reported by the New York Post. If they don’t sign him, the Mets will not necessarily pivot to the remaining top pitchers available, a short list that includes two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell and former Yankees lefthander Jordan Montgomery.
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
