What to expect from the Yankees’ Monday meeting with Yoshinobu Yamamoto -- and what comes after that
The Yankees are among a handful of teams that are well-positioned to sign NPB star Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and will try to close a deal beginning with a meeting later on Monday at the Los Angeles offices of Yamamoto’s agency, Wasserman.
As of Sunday, the Yankees planned to send a large group of senior leadership to the meeting: managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner, general manager Brian Cashman, manager Aaron Boone and pitching coach Matt Blake, according to two league sources. If any attendees were added to or subtracted from that list, it would have been a last-minute change.
The Yankees would not confirm the attendees or any other details of the meeting. Cashman answered a question about it with his go-to phrase for not commenting, “[I] wouldn’t say.”
Meetings of this nature typically last 1-2 hours, and the expectation going in was that this one would follow that format. The team does most, but not all, of the presenting/talking. High-ranking members of the Wasserman group could also attend.
Steinbrenner’s presence, which comes after Mets owner Steve Cohen flew to Japan two weeks ago to meet with Yamamoto and his family, demonstrates the Yankees’ seriousness.
They are hardly the only team that feels that way; in addition to the Yanks and Mets, the Dodgers, Giants, Red Sox, Cubs and Cardinals are among the clubs linked to Yamamoto. According to ESPN’s Buster Olney, the Giants met with Yamamoto on Sunday.
As SNY has reported, Yamamoto has privately expressed interest in the Yankees and noticed when the team held out his preferred uniform number, 18, all last season. No one involved in the bidding expects that jersey number to be the deciding factor, but it was a meaningful gesture.
Another intangible factor working for the Yankees is former NPB and Yanks star Hideki Matsui. Not only is Matsui a current Yankee employee who, as Newark Star-Ledger columnist Bob Klapisch first reported, was helping in this situation -- but he is also a former Wasserman client said to have a meaningful relationship with Yamamoto’s agent, Joel Wolfe.
Both the Yankees and Mets have made Yamamoto their top free agent priority this winter, to the exclusion even of Shohei Ohtani (not that Ohtani would have agreed to play in New York). The Dodgers, who signed Ohtani, have obviously not been able to make Yamamoto their sole focus.
Yamamoto is expected to sign with a team before Christmas. The Mets are still waiting to hear if the pitcher will want to meet with them again before making his decision.
