By Erwin Quiñonez
Dec 24, 2023, 16:47 PM EST
Three days have passed since the novel by the Japanese Yoshinobu Yamamoto came to an end, who was wanted by several Major League teams, including the New York Yankees and Mets, but ended up reaching a record agreement with the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he is his compatriot Shohei Ohtani.
Given this, MLB Network panelist Jon Heyman has revealed the supposed reason why the Yankees decided not to match or exceed the offer of $325 million dollars and 12 years from the Californian team, which was none other than to protect and Maintain respect for the leaders of the organization.
As Heyman explained, the Bronx Bombers, having the economic possibility of fighting for Yamamoto, decided not to bid beyond $300 million dollars because they consider that no pitcher should have a better contract than Gerrit Cole’s 9-year, $324 million contract. of dollars.
Yankees decided not to match Dodgers winning $325M bid to Yamamoto because: 1) they thought $300M was right offer, 2) they didn’t believe anyone should have a bigger deal than Gerrit Cole. NYY offered optout after 5 years but not a $50M signing bonus. Highly unlikely it matters.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) December 23, 2023
This supposed decision by the New York team makes sense taking into account the divided opinion generated by the contract that Yamamoto received, where some claimed that he was fine because of his numbers in Japan, while others saw it as an exaggeration since he is a pitcher who has not been proven in the Major Leagues.
In addition to this, the aforementioned statement indicated that the Yankees were not willing to pay a signing bonus like the Dodgers did for $50 million.
But the Yankees were not the only ones who decided to set a limit on their intention to sign the 25-year-old Japanese pitcher, and the Mets also made an effort to let the player know that they wanted him, including a visit to Japan by owner Steve Cohen and baseball special operations president David Stearns.
Cohen, known in recent years for having no problems spending large amounts of money on players, decided not to match the Dodgers’ offer at one point in the negotiations because they considered that they had already done enough with other actions.