Phillies Have Made An Offer To Yoshinobu Yamamoto
12 months agoThe Philadelphia Phillies have made an offer to Japanese free-agent right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto. It's a bid odd, considering president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski has said several times that their five-man starting rotation is set after re-signing right-hander Aaron Nola for $172 million earlier this offseason. Philadelphia will have their highest payroll ever in 2024, so it has been unlikely that they'd be able to add another star player like Yamamoto. They've been interested in Yamamoto for months, though, and increased their scouting presence in Japan over the last two years. However, the Phils have never signed a Japanese player to a major-league contract and haven't had a Japanese player on their roster since 2009. That will likely work against them in their pursuit of Yamamoto, and they are unlikely to be his highest bidder.
Source: The Athletic - Matt Gelb
Source: The Athletic - Matt Gelb