We will probably never know exactly how this meeting went or what was said in it; we can speculate based on where Yamamoto eventually signs.
But for the Phillies, the fact that a meeting is taking place is a huge positive sign. Yesterday, it was reported that the Phillies were meeting with superstar Japanese free agent Yoshinobu Yamamoto. To date, they are one of about a half dozen teams to be heavily connected to Yamamoto. The Yankees and Dodgers are the favorites to win his services.
For the Phillies, being in the running for a major free agent from Japan is new ground. Just two players who were born in Japan have worn Phillies pinstripes in the team’s 140-year existence. These players, who combined for 137 Phillies games, are Tadahito Iguchi (2007, 2008) and So Taguchi (2008). Taguchi is also the hitting instructor for Yamamoto’s Orix Buffaloes. It would be an understatement to suggest that the Phillies have little precedent or good fortune in signing former Nippon Professional Baseball players.
Their interest in Yamamoto is so distinctive because of this. Unlike teams like the Dodgers and Yankees, they don’t have the tradition of using Japanese stars to win over Yamamoto. Los Angeles might approach him about hiring Hideo Nomo, a player who many believe helped pave the way for other NPB players to come to America. Of course, they now also work with the greatest player in the world, Shohei Ohtani, who was a member of Yamamoto’s winning Team Japan in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Because they are on the west coast, they also enjoy the geographical benefit of being the closest to Japan.
Hideki Matsui, who flourished in New York and earned the 2009 World Series MVP award against the Phillies, is someone the Yankees might push to Yamamoto as an example. With Masahiro Tanaka, they even have a recent history of using a Japanese pitcher.
Conversely, the Phillies don’t have any of that. There is no history of Japanese players becoming successful there. They lack a former star who rose to fame and became a legend in the franchise. They genuinely don’t have any past. In fact, Ohtani’s sole memory of Philadelphia during his free agent years after being posted in 2017 was stopping for a picture at the Rocky statue.
This meeting is crucial, for that reason alone, even if Yamamoto decides not to sign with the Philadelphia Phillies.
When Dave Dombrowski took over the Phillies’ baseball operations, he reportedly discovered right away that the team lacked information on players from Korea and Japan.
Leave a Reply