San Francisco Giants met with prized Japanese free agent pitcher (report)
The San Francisco Giants have been one of the teams that have been strongly in the running for Japanese ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
According to ESPN’s Buster Olney, the Giants have met with the 25-year-old hurler.
“Source: The Giants met yesterday with pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto. He's got a lot of big market teams bidding for his services,” reported Olney.
Yamamoto is beginning to meet with other teams and is expected to meet with the Yankees on Monday in Los Angeles.
People around the league are expecting Yamamoto’s deal to clear the $300 million mark. That does not account for the posting fee the signing club must pay to the Orix Buffaloes.
Last offseason, the Giants were aggressively pursuing and trying to sign outfielder Aaron Judge and Carlos Correa. Both players returned to their respective teams in free agency leaving the Giants coming up empty.
If the Giants sign Yamamoto, they’d be getting a young ace in the prime of his pitching career. Yamamoto would provide San Francisco a lethal one-two punch with Logan Webb.
There’s a lot to like about Yamamoto outside of him, posting a 16-6 last season with a 1.21 ERA with 169 strikeouts and 28 walks. Adding the righty would help boost the Giants staff that ranked 23rd in the bigs with an opponent batting average of .253 last season.
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