Red Sox believe Yoshinobu Yamamoto is ‘a true No. 1 starter’
The baseball world is ready for free agent righty Yoshinobu Yamamoto to make a decision on where he’ll play in the bigs. At some point, Yamamoto will decide and free agency can move forward.
The Red Sox remain in the mix for his services and reportedly made a $300 million offer, as reported by Marino Pepen on Saturday.
According to NBC Sports Boston John Tomase, the Red Sox view Yamamoto as an ace and the real deal on the mound.
“For one, per multiple big-league sources, the Red Sox believe Yamamoto is the real deal and a true No. 1 starter,” said Tomase. “Perhaps that sounds obvious, but with the quality of play in Japan's top league roughly equivalent to Triple-A, it's never entirely clear how a player's game will translate.”
The Red Sox aren’t alone in wanting Yamamoto. If Boston is going to land their next ace, they will need to outbid the Mets, Yankees or even the Giants.
Yamamoto visited with both the Mets and Yankees over the weekend. It’s still unknown to what level the Red Sox have met with Yamamoto or how many times they spoke.
WEEI’s Rob Bradford reported on Monday that the Red Sox met with the right-handers representatives last week.
Boston has not been active this winter and have only signed one player to a major league contract. The Red Sox signed righty Cooper Criswell to a one-year, $1 million deal.
Craig Breslow can make an instant name for himself as new chief baseball officer landing the biggest fish in free agency, outside of Shohei Ohtani.
If the Red Sox lose out on Yamamoto, they have a contingency plan in place, according to Tomase. That could be lefties Jordan Montgomery and Blake Snell or righties Lucas Giolito or fellow Japanese hurler Shota Imanaga.
Yamamoto needs to make a decision by Jan. 4, and it’s expected to come before then. Boston is in play late in the game and that should begin to show the fanbase they’re serious about next season and focusing on rebuilding the pitching staff.
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The only thing that will show me they are serious is if they sign someone. If they already know how much they intend to spend on him, they should be able to budget for the guy they need on the tier below. The pivot would be to the next tier 1 guy, no?