Yamamoto, a Japanese standout, joins the Dodgers for a 12-year, $325 million contract

According to ESPN, Japanese great Yoshinobu Yamamoto and the Los Angeles Dodgers have agreed to a 12-year, $325 million contract, capping up a frantic free agency period with the highest deal for a pitcher in years and value in Major League Baseball history.

The agreement, for which Los Angeles will pay an additional $50.6 million posting fee to Yamamoto’s previous team, the Orix Buffaloes, brings the Dodgers’ free agent spending this winter to more than $1 billion, following the 10-year, $700 million contract given to Yamamoto’s countryman, Shohei Ohtani.

Yamamoto, who has two opt-outs in his deal, will get a $50 million signing bonus, according to sources. Unlike Ohtani’s contract, which has $680 million deferred for 10 years, Yamamoto’s contract has no deferred money.

Yamamoto and his contract with Dodgers, which was first reported by ESPN’s Buster Olney, is $1 million more than Gerrit Cole’s $324 million guaranteed deal with the Yankees.

The agreement, which is subject to a physical, comes after the Dodgers outlasted the New York Mets, who offered a comparable amount, and the New York Yankees, who were long considered the favorites but ended up offering $300 million, according to sources. The Philadelphia Phillies, San Francisco Giants, Boston Red Sox, and Toronto Blue Jays were all interested, but couldn’t outbid the Dodgers, who have already accounted for more than half of MLB’s free-agent spending this winter.

Yamamoto, a right-hander who has won three consecutive MVP honors and Sawamura honors (Nippon Professional Baseball’s equivalent of the Cy Young) after moving from the bullpen to Orix’s rotation in 2019, has dominated NPB like no one in the league’s 74-year existence. He has a 1.65 ERA in 8203 innings, has struck out nearly five times as many batters as he has walked, and has allowed one home run per 28 innings.

With a fastball that can reach 99 mph, a deadly split-fingered fastball, and a looping curveball that frequently crushes batters’ knees, he has as good an arsenal as any pitcher to come from Japan. Yamamoto lacks the bulk of a traditional frontline starter at 5-foot-10 and 176 pounds, but clubs interested in him were unconcerned, focused instead on the type of things his body can create.

He does this through a distinct training style that emphasizes flexibility and mobility over sheer strength. Yamamoto does not lift weights, instead depending on a program of body-weight workouts, stretches, and a lot of throwing – anything from little soccer balls to mini javelins to long toss and bullpens with regulation-sized baseballs. Evaluators claimed his athleticism allows him to apply force to the ball that is disproportionate to his size.

As a result, clubs have been lining up for more than a year to sign him. They anticipated him to be posted when he turned 25 in August, because he would no longer be subject to MLB rules that require players to sign international amateur contracts – with compensation limited to bonus pools of less than $10 million – before their 25th birthday.

Among the execs who visited Japan this year were Dodgers president Andrew Friedman, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, Giants president Farhan Zaidi, and Chicago Cubs president Jed Hoyer.

Mets owner Steve Cohen and president David Stearns came there to speak with Yamamoto after he was formally posted on Nov. 20, with a 45-day window for him to sign. Yamamoto’s US trip included another stop with the Mets, two visits with the Yankees, and meetings with the Dodgers, Giants, Phillies, and Red Sox.

The meetings helped Yamamoto clarify his goals before the clubs began discussing the specifics of the agreement with Yamamoto and his agent, Joel Wolfe, on Monday. Yamamoto’s greatest season as a starter came in 2023, when he had a 1.21 ERA across 164 innings, a 6-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio, and only two home runs allowed.