The New York Yankees Lose Out on Japanese Pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto
The New York Yankees may have lost out on Japanese free-agent right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, but it wasn’t for lack of effort. A comparison of the teams’ offers suggests that Yamamoto simply might have preferred the Los Angeles Dodgers to any other club.
According to sources briefed on the respective proposals, the Yankees offered Yamamoto a higher average annual value than the Dodgers, an earlier opt-out, and more money in the first five years. However, Yamamoto ultimately agreed to a 12-year, $325 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers that included a $50 million signing bonus, opt-outs after the sixth and ninth years, and backloaded salaries. The deal is not yet official. The New York Mets proposed the same 12 years and $325 million, but other details of their bid are not known.
The Yankees offered Yamamoto 10 years, $300 million — an AAV of $30 million, as opposed to the Dodgers’ $27.08 million. The opt-out in their deal was after the fifth year, and the salaries each year were the same, with no money backloaded.
When factoring in a posting fee of $46.875 million to Yamamoto’s Japanese club, the Orix Buffaloes, the Yankees were ready to commit to a total payout of nearly $200 million over five years, knowing Yamamoto then might opt out.
However, what the Yankees did not offer Yamamoto was a record total value for a pitcher, surpassing the $324 million they guaranteed their own Gerrit Cole after the 2019 season. They also did not offer a $50 million signing bonus, though the parties could have shifted money into a bonus if the negotiations advanced.
Per Robert Raiola, a CPA who is the director of sports and entertainment at the accounting firm PFK O’Connor Davies, Yamamoto will not pay California tax on the signing bonus if he is a nonresident of the state. The Dodgers will pay the bonus entirely in 2024, and the tax savings for Yamamoto could amount to $7.2 million.
The message seems clear. Like Shohei Ohtani, who reportedly had the Giants and Blue Jays willing to match the 10-year, massively deferred $700 million contract he received from the Dodgers, Yamamoto appeared to have a specific team he wanted to join. And that team was the Dodgers.
(Top photo of Yamamoto: Yuichi Yamazaki / AFP via Getty Images)