Another day, another historic free-agent deal for the Dodgers this winter.
Los Angeles has agreed to a 12-year, $325 million deal with coveted Japanese right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, a source told MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand on Thursday night. The Dodgers are also on the hook for a posting fee of around $50 million to Yamamoto’s former Nippon Professional Baseball team, the Orix Buffaloes.
The team has not confirmed the deal, which is pending a physical.
The deal, which includes a $50 million signing bonus, has no deferrals and includes opt-outs after years six and eight, per a source. Yamamoto will receive the most guaranteed dollars ever given to a pitcher, surpassing Gerrit Cole by $1 million — though in his current nine-year, $324 million deal with the Yankees, Cole holds the edge in average annual value over Yamamoto’s $27 million per year.
It’s also the longest free-agent deal for a full-time pitcher (two-way stars not included) since Wayne Garland signed with Cleveland for 10 years and $2.3 million in 1977. He was released five years later.
The Dodgers already had plenty of pitching at their disposal, but with starters such as Walker Buehler, Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin all recovering from surgery, they were looking to add at least one top-of-the-rotation arm to bolster their depth.
In Yamamoto, Los Angeles will get that and perhaps even more.
As evidenced by his historic deal, Yamamoto, 25, is considered a potential frontline starter despite his slight frame. The 5-foot-10 righty’s repertoire features a fastball that sits in the mid-to-upper 90s and multiple wipeout secondary pitches, including his signature curveball, as well as a splitter and cutter/slider.
He comes to the Majors having won the pitching Triple Crown in Nippon Professional Baseball, leading the league in wins, ERA and strikeouts, and the Eiji Sawamura Award — Japan’s version of the Cy Young — in each of the past three seasons. Altogether, he went 49-16 with a 1.44 ERA and 580 strikeouts in that span.
Yamamoto burnished his legacy with a 14-strikeout complete game on 138 pitches in what turned out to be his final NPB start, leading Orix to victory in Game 6 of the Japan Series. The Buffaloes ultimately lost the series to the Hanshin Tigers, but Yamamoto’s performance under that spotlight won’t soon be forgotten as he moves on to the next stage of his career.
Yamamoto previously helped Orix win the Japan Series in 2022, and he also won gold pitching for his country at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the 2023 World Baseball Classic.
Now, he’ll look to follow in the footsteps of other Japanese arms who successfully transitioned from NPB to Major League Baseball, including standouts such as Ohtani, Hideo Nomo, Yu Darvish, Kazuhiro Sasaki, Koji Uehara, Hiroki Kuroda, Hisashi Iwakuma, Kenta Maeda, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Masahiro Tanaka.