The Los Angeles Dodgers are not stopping at signing Shohei Ohtani. Instead, they are also trying to lure pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto. They are doing it by having Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman attend their meetings with the three-time Pacific League Most Valuable Player.
Yamamoto is a prized free agent because he has dominated Nippon Professional Baseball. Aside from being an MVP, he is also a three-time Eiji Sawamura Award winner, the equivalent of Major League Baseball’s Cy Young Award.
He is also a part of the NPB Best Nine (akin to the All-MLB First Team) and a Pacific League Golden Glove awardee from 2021 to 2023. During the same stretch, he won the Japanese Triple Crown and made three of his five NPB All-Star appearances.
Yamamoto completed his career achievements in Japan by winning the 2022 Japan Series with the Orix Buffaloes. He has also won gold for Japan in the 2020 Summer Olympics and the 2023 World Baseball Classic.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto's meeting with the Dodgers yesterday featured Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Shohei Ohtani, per @Ken_Rosenthal and @FabianArdaya pic.twitter.com/HZj2qHPyyU
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) December 13, 2023
Having an MVP talk to fellow MVPs is one approach that might work with Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Ohtani, a fellow Japanese, and a reigning MVP, signed a ten-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers. He is also a two-time Silver Slugger and three-time MLB All-Star.
Meanwhile, Betts was the 2018 American League MVP when he was still with the World Series-winning Boston Red Sox. He has received votes for Most Valuable Player in eight of his ten MLB seasons. Betts is also a five-time Gold Glove and six-time Silver Slugger awardee.
Finally, Freeman won the 2020 National League MVP with the Atlanta Braves. He has received MVP votes in nine of his 14 seasons and was crowned a Gold Glove winner once. He also has three Silver Slugger Awards and seven All-Star appearances.
While the Dodgers are all out to convince Yamamoto to join them, they face fierce competition from several teams. One of their rivals is the New York Yankees, who added Alex Verdugo and Juan Soto to their roster not too long ago.
-Lance Fernandez
