Mets preparing a "very serious" financial offer for Yoshinobu Yamamoto
Also - some other free agent targets are receiving interest elsewhere
What’s Up with the Mets? 🍎
Yoshinobu Yamamoto is back in LA, with the Mets getting ready to make a “very serious” offer - the hope is Yamamoto makes a decision before Christmas (SNY)
Rumor Mill 💨
The Dodgers are considering a bid of at least $250 million for Yoshinobu Yamamoto (LA Times)
The Angels have had recent contact with Blake Snell (MLB Network)
The Blue Jays are expressing interest in signing Justin Turner (Sportsnet)
Hope is the final strategy for Yamamoto… ✍️
The Mets have done everything they can to entice Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who’s free agency has grown beyond the normal level of fascination over the last few weeks.
They’ve scouted him. They’ve met with him at his home in Japan. They’ve met with him here at the home of their owner, Steve and Alex Cohen. Mets president of baseball operations has been very open to the public about their admiration of Yamamoto as a talented pitcher, and they’re obviously impressed with him as a person and individual.
And now, the Mets are preparing what SNY’s Andy Martino is describing as a “very serious” offer for the 25-year-old free agent.
What does that mean exactly? Combine logic and imagination, and it’s still really hard to figure what the number might be out of the gate.
However, we can at least talk about the logic of the circumstances the Mets find themselves in.
Simply put, the Mets don’t exactly have the most attractive win-now situation for Yamamoto. That doesn’t mean he won’t make them more of a win-now team and it doesn’t mean the Mets won’t win a World Series before, say the Dodgers or the Yankees do in this decade. But Yamamoto is reportedly seeking the big stage with an iconic franchise and, just to be fair here, the Dodgers and Yankees may come with a little more cachet in that department.
So, when defining what a “very serious” offer might mean, it’s fair to conclude both Mr. Cohen and Mr. Stearns are surmising that in order to net their white whale of the winter, they’re going to have to maybe not even outbid the Yankees and Dodgers, but perhaps blow the doors off their offers in the end.
I’d also assume the Yankees and Dodgers know the Mets are coming in hot to the bidding as well.
That’s not to say the first offer the Mets make will be their best and final. That’s not how it usually works in free agency at the first stage of bidding. But it probably means their first offer is going to indicate they’re for real and they’re not going away in this race unless Yamamoto shoes them away.
Last summer, Mr. Cohen sat in front of the media and gave one of his signature lines to-date in his ownership tenure when he said, “hope isn’t a strategy.” He’s right. The Mets can’t run their organization hoping everything goes right, or hoping they have enough depth, or hoping the light goes on for a prospect, and so on and so forth. There are strategies within making sure things go right, and making sure they have enough depth, and making sure the light goes on for a top prospect.
In this case, they’ve made sure to make this free agent feels wanted and needed, they’ve presumably made sure the player knows all he needs to about the club and it’s history, and they’ve presumably made sure to let the player know they have the financial might to sign any player at any time, including him.
So it’s same to conclude their forthcoming offer will make their intentions clear with the player.
But in their pursuit for Yamamoto, hope might actually be their final strategy.
If they’ve done all of that and ultimately outbid everyone for Yamamoto, that’s all they can really do in this pursuit.
Then they simply wait and hope he chooses them.
Hot Stove 🔥
The Pirates are bringing Andrew McCutchen back on a one-year, $5 million deal (Pittsburgh Post Gazette)
The Giants are looking at the trade market for shortstops (SF Chronicle)
The Yankees claimed Jeter Downs off waivers
The Padres are close to signing LHP Yuki Masuki (MLB.com)