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Would’ve picked Dodgers even if Ohtani hadn’t

Bill Plunkett
Bill Plunkett
Would’ve picked Dodgers even if Ohtani hadn’t



LOS ANGELES — Opportunity knocked this winter and the Dodgers greeted it with an open checkbook.

The third piece of their $1.1 billion spending spree was introduced at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday afternoon with right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto officially added to Shohei Ohtani and Tyler Glasnow. In the span of about two weeks, the Dodgers gave Ohtani the largest contract ever given to a professional athlete ($700 million) and Yamamoto the most guaranteed money ever given to a pitcher ($325 million). In between, they acquired Glasnow in a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays and signed him to a contract extension ($136.5 million).

“There is a special opportunity here with the talent we were able to bring on board and the investment matches that,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said of the most expensive offseason in MLB history.

The Dodgers’ display of financial muscle might have shocked the baseball world. But team president Stan Kasten said the Dodgers had “prepared” for the unique opportunity to add the 29-year-old Ohtani, an international star who brings a healthy revenue stream with him, and the 25-year-old Yamamoto, perhaps the most accomplished Japanese player to ever make the jump to MLB.

“We feel very good about the investments we’ve made in our team,” Kasten said.

“It was the opportunity. This was a player (Yamamoto), if he had been there any year we would have been after him. It just so happened that it was coming up this year (the same year Ohtani was a free agent).

“Both things were unique opportunities. The fact that we were able to do both of them was good fortune. But we would have been interested in either one of them in any year.”

If one was not contingent on the next, Ohtani certainly did his part to make the addition of Yamamoto possible. The reigning American League MVP deferred $680 million of his record $700 million contract, lessening the impact on the Dodgers’ payroll and giving them some flexibility to add the starting pitching that was their greatest need this offseason. And Ohtani met with Yamamoto, his World Baseball Classic teammate last spring, when Yamamoto visited with the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium during negotiations.

“Through my talks with the front office, it was really clear they wanted to win. But on top of that, the fact that Shohei was doing that also signaled to me that it wasn’t just the front office, it was also the players that are bought into this winning atmosphere, as well. That really resonated with me,” Yamamoto said through his interpreter, Mako Albee, while wearing a white No. 18 jersey and a blue cap in the Centerfield Plaza at Dodger Stadium.

“I wouldn’t say he (Ohtani) was the sole reason I decided to come here. Even if he went somewhere else, I probably still would have ended up in L.A. as a Dodger.”

It was not Yamamoto’s first time at Dodger Stadium. He said he attended a playoff game there during the 2019 postseason (as well as one in Oakland on that same trip) and saw Kenta Maeda pitch for the Dodgers. Seeing a countryman pitch in that setting motivated him “more strongly” to make the jump to MLB someday, Yamamoto said.

While he plays alongside Ohtani with his star-studded new club, Yamamoto also intends to inspire any dreaming youngsters in the Dodger Stadium stands.

“From today moving forward, I promise to all the fans of L.A. that I will focus my everything to become a better player, and to become a world champion as a member of the Dodgers,” Yamamoto said through his interpreter. “I will stop simply admiring the players that I have looked up to, but rather strive to become the player that others want to become.”

Yamamoto has been Japan’s most dominant pitcher over the past few seasons, and he was coveted by teams across the majors after he elected to leave the Orix Buffaloes this offseason. The 5-foot-10 Yamamoto won three straight Most Valuable Player awards in the Nippon Pacific League and went 16-6 with a 1.21 ERA while striking out 169 and walking just 28 this year, winning the Japanese pitching triple crown by leading the league in wins, strikeouts and ERA. He has a career 1.72 ERA, has won the Japanese version of the Cy Young Award three times and allowed just 36 homers over his seven seasons in Japan, including two in 164 innings last season.

Like Maeda and other Japanese pitchers before him, Yamamoto will have to navigate the transition to the major leagues. He pitched just once a week in Japan where the ball is also slightly different. The additional workload could be the biggest challenge for Yamamoto, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.

“Certainly, the landscape of our starting staff has considerably changed over the last few weeks,” Roberts said.

Gomes was asked about the possibility of adopting a six-man rotation to accommodate Yamamoto – and the workload issues that will come with Glasnow (who has thrown 90 innings in a season just twice in his eight major-league seasons) and Walker Buehler (returning from a second Tommy John surgery).

“One thing we’ve done really well over the years is make sure our pitchers have enough rest. That’s something we’ll continue to talk about and make sure that everyone is in the best position to perform,” Gomes said. “We’ve been fortunate enough to have depth to drop guys in when needed. It’s something we’ve done in the past. We’ll be nimble on that front.

“I think being able to watch Yoshinobu pitch, his stuff is special. The command is something that I haven’t seen. It is up there with the upper echelon of guys I’ve seen command the baseball. There’s no question in our mind that his commitment and dedication, taking care of himself, that he will get in a good routine, and on that rotation schedule at some point. That’s something we can talk through more as a group.”

Yamamoto is well on the way to making another part of his transition to the United States. He made an opening statement in English during Wednesday’s press conference and is studying the language with his sister, who teaches English at an elementary school in Japan, according to Yamamoto’s agent, Joel Wolfe.


Bill Plunkett www.ocregister.com Los Angeles Dodgers,MLB,Sports,Top Stories Breeze,top stories ivdb,Top Stories LADN,Top Stories LBPT,Top Stories OCR,Top Stories PE,Top Stories PSN,top stories rdf,Top Stories SGVT,top stories sun,Top Stories WDN

SOURCE
2023-12-27 20:25:45 , Dodgers baseball news: The Orange County Register

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