Robert Chou
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LOS ANGELES – When Yoshinobu Yamamoto put on his new uniform for the first time, with his blue vest peeking out from under the crisp home whites of the Los Angeles Dodgers, it was a coronation: one for the organization that coveted him for years, and another for 25- The one-year-old Japanese right-hander signed the richest contract for a pitcher in baseball history, even before he had thrown a pitch in the major leagues.
The record contract and his robust market were an indication that the Dodgers’ bullish opinion of him was shared. His history of dominance in his native country was well documented. His age gave him a unique opportunity. And when his new club officially introduced him Wednesday, the man who saw him more than anyone in the organization was sitting in the front row.
Galen Carr, the Dodgers’ vice president of player personnel, was far from the only person who saw Yamamoto pitch last season. President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Brandon Gomes each traveled to Osaka, Japan, to witness this offseason’s final award in person with the Orix Buffaloes, and Gomes praised the experience of watching the Yamamoto’s complexities in real time. Ron Deeble, the club’s director of scouting in the Pacific Rim, did a lot of traveling. So did Pacific Rim club advisor Yogo Suzuki and professional scout Jason Lynn. Even manager Dave Roberts spent much of the club’s signing of Yamamoto poring over video (as did many other members of the staff). One of the club’s catchers, Austin Barnes, already saw Yamamoto too: he faced him during the World Baseball Classic in March. However, it was Carr, who has seen Yamamoto about 16 times in recent seasons, who saw him the most and who got rave reviews from Gomes, Roberts and others.
“He’s been doing what he’s been doing for quite some time,” Carr said in a conversation with The Athletic on Thursday, highlighting an excellent track record that has seen Yamamoto take home the Sawamura Award (Nippon Professional Baseball’s equivalent of the Cy Young Award) three consecutive times. “Ever since he came to the top level in Japan, he’s basically been shut down.”
That includes a career 1.72 ERA in 188 appearances in Japan, a streak that has put him firmly on the radar of several of baseball’s deepest clubs and makes a compelling case for what he can accomplish next. He will be paid $325 million over the next 12 years to prove it, a considerable investment for a Dodgers organization that has typically mitigated risk.
Given what they’ve seen, it’s something they’re willing to accept.
Carr highlighted Yamamoto’s adaptability, including a surprise in the spring when several members of the Dodgers’ coaching staff arrived at Samurai Japan’s training camp in Miyazaki only to discover that Yamamoto had drastically altered his delivery, reducing his kick in favor of of a sliding step to help control the running game and shorten his movement to the plate. Doing so after any degree of success, Carr said, is “really weird.” Do it after dominating the league and going out to create an even better 2023?
“It’s remarkable what he was able to do,” Carr said, a consummation of not only the ability to retrain his body but the positions he can repeat even with his 5-foot-10 frame.
That is adapted and maintained by the teachings of a Japanese expert, Yata Sensei, who will accompany Yamamoto to his new home in Los Angeles, said Yamamoto’s agent, Joel Wolfe. The training methods focus on “breathing, flexibility, yoga and core training,” Wolfe said, and include a variety of exercises that focus more on miniature soccer balls and javelins than weight lifting. Carr and other club staff turned visits to Osaka into opportunities to ask questions and learn more about those methods, too.
“One of the big things that stood out to us was that everything he’s doing is not so conventional in terms of our understanding of training methods for the sport we work in, but obviously the results speak for themselves.” “I think with respect to injury rates and how many pitchers end up breaking down in the United States, I don’t think anyone in Major League Baseball would say that we have training methods for pitchers figured out.”
It has undoubtedly translated into repeatable delivery and an arsenal that, as The AthleticEno Sarris collapsed, rivals some of the sport’s best and whose underlying data has been meticulously analyzed. An adaptation remains to the MLB ball, which lacks some of the grip-enhancing tack in NPB that Yamamoto has become accustomed to, although the right-hander used a similar ball during this year’s WBC. The Dodgers may have to adjust their plans a bit to help Yamamoto acclimate to his schedule after pitching once a week in Japan. While Gomes said Thursday that it’s unclear whether the club will adopt a six-man rotation, only five clubs in baseball have had starters with more rest than the Dodgers since Friedman took over. If this arsenal can be preserved, it will be a dynamic blend of five tones involving what Gomes called a “truly special” command. And he knows how to use it, as Carr noted in several starts that Yamamoto’s sequencing helped mitigate the rare problems he found himself in the pocket last season. That, along with the Dodgers’ game planning, could translate into immediate results, Carr said.
The Dodgers are accepting a 12-year payout not just for what it is, but for what it can be. The options are tempting and the risk is great. He’s been the object of the organization’s adoration for years, the kind of investment the club would have pushed for even before beginning a path to a record-breaking offseason. His mere presence has helped change the future of a Dodgers rotation that has talent but a lot of uncertainty. The club is prepared to assume this responsibility.
Yamamoto is too, says the man who has watched him more than anyone else in his new organization.
“He’s just an exceptional athlete and his raw stuff across the board is exceptional,” Carr said. “And there’s no other way to describe it. … Obviously we weren’t the only ones who felt this way within our industry.
“It’s kind of how you word it.”
(Top photo by Yoshinobu Yamamoto: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
