As the Chicago Cubs are just entering their window of contention, they could be looking to possibly add an ace from overseas to bolster their rotation.
Even as the current Chicago Cubs team is fighting for a playoff berth, Jed Hoyer will soon be heading to Japan to watch an NPB star:
So, just how coveted is Japanese star pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who threw a no-hitter in his last start?
There were 29 #MLB scouts on hand for his last start, including #Yankees GM Brian Cashman.
Jed Hoyer,Chicago #Cubs president of baseball operations, is coming for next start— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) September 12, 2023
Obviously, the Chicago Cubs are not alone in their interest, but it is well deserved for one of the best and most accomplished pitchers in NPB history. Yoshinobu Yamamoto is just now 25 years old and already is in his 7th professional season and he debuted at 18 in 2017. His first four season were very solid, but his breakout in ‘21 started the historic run he is on.
Since 2021, he has went 38-15 with ERAs between 1.20 and 1.68, WHIPs all below 1, 563 strikeouts over 536.2 innings of work. In the ‘21 and ‘22 seasons he was the MVP, the Triple Crown Winner, the Sawamura winner, which is the Cy Young equivalent, the All-Star, and the Gold Glove winner. You can also throw in another ERA title and three more All-Star appearances outside of that two-year window. Plus, he just recently threw his second no-hitter.
He obviously has gotten results, but what does Yamamoto throw that has the Chicago Cubs and 28 other teams so enamored? Yamamoto has a solid 5-pitch mix with 4-seam, 2-seam, cutter, curve, and splitter. The 4-seam sits around 95mph and has great ride spin. He can use his curve a bit harder in the high 70’s for get over strikes, or he can get it all the way down in the low 70’s and get a lot drop and break.
He has the talent, but he also has the moxie of a big league star. He pitched in the NPB equivalent of the World Series and won. He also owns an Olympic gold medal from the 2020 games in Tokyo, a gold medal from this year’s World Baseball Classic, and has finished off two no-hitters.
So now that we know about Yamamoto, what is it going to take for the Chicago Cubs, or anyone else, to attain his services? Well, it certainly won’t be cheap. I think a good baseline would be the contract the Yankees gave to Masahiro Tanaka when he first came to the States in 2014. The seven-year 155 million dollar deal, plus the roughly 20 million dollar posting fee, made him one of the highest-paid pitchers in the game at the time. Tanaka had similar levels of success in Japan and was the exact same age of 25 that Yamamoto would be when he came to the MLB.
Tanaka’s contract is a good starting point, especially length-wise, for the Chicago Cubs and others to start with, but the biggest difference between those two are the day and age they are coming to the MLB. In 2014, Tanaka’s contract made him the 5th highest paid pitcher in the game. Now, his contract would make him just the 13-highest paid in the game sandwiched between Patrick Corbin and Robbie Ray. So they’d have to up the salary by roughly 50 million just to get him into the top 8, which it sounds like some teams may be ready to do. Plus there would be roughly a 30 million posting fee with the posting rules set in place.
It’ll be a tall task for the Chicago Cubs to acquire Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The many suitors and assumed large contract will make sure of that. However, imagining the front line of Steele and Yamamoto makes it easy to hope the team is serious about getting the Japanese ace into a Chicago Cubs uniform and pitching in Wrigley Field.
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