Orioles Get Glimpse of Yamamoto Free Agency Timeline
Whether the Baltimore Orioles are in or out on Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, they know what the timeline for that courtship will be.
Starting next week, per SNY, his agent, Joel Wolfe, will set up Zoom calls or phone calls with prospective teams that are hoping to sign Yamamoto, who could command a deal north of $200 million.
If the Orioles are interested, they’ll be a part of those phone calls.
But, if they’re not, Yamamoto’s aggressive timeline to get a deal could help the Orioles, too.
The teams considered finalists to sign him won’t get the chance to meet with him in person until after the winter meetings conclude on Dec. 7 in Nashville.
That’s likely by design by Wolfe, an effort to inflate the market for the 25-year-old and his contract. The timeline is also aggressive because Yamamoto needs a deal by Jan. 4 or he must return to his Japanese team, the Orix Buffaloes.
Here’s how that could help the Orioles, if they’re out on Yamamoto. The teams that are finalists may choose to remain patient and pursue their top target.
For those teams that aren’t in the mix, they could pounce on the remaining pitching either via free agency or by trade and sign what’s there, putting the remaining teams in pursuit of Yamamoto in a bit of a bind.
In that respect, the Orioles would be in a great position to pursue other targets with less competition.
At 25 years old, 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. This season he had just a 1.21 ERA. He also went 16-6 and struck out 169 hitters in 164 innings.
Yamamoto has thrown two no-hitters in his career. He’s also won gold medals for Japan in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.
Yamamoto just wrapped up play in the Japan Series, their country’s equivalent of the World Series. His final game saw him strike out 14 hitters in Game 6, which set a series record.
