Highly coveted Nippon Professional Baseball pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto will begin meeting with interested teams via phone or Zoom next week, as he is expected to travel back to Japan, according to two league sources briefed on his free agency process.
Yamamoto, a target of the Yankees, Mets and many other clubs, was posted by his team, the Orix Buffaloes, last Monday.
According to those league sources, Yamamoto will narrow down the teams after those initial remote meetings. He will then return to the United States to meet with finalists in person after MLB’s Winter Meetings, which take place from Dec. 4-7 in Nashville.
He has until Jan. 4 -- 45 days from posting -- to sign with a team, but is not expected to require that much time.
The Yamamoto sweepstakes took a brief turn toward misinformation on Wednesday, when it was widely written and aggregated that the pitcher prefers to play for a team that already has a Japanese player.
In reality, Yamamoto’s agent, Joel Wolfe, said on a call with Japanese reporters that his client -- unlike some Japanese stars -- would have no problem playing with a fellow NPB export. According to one person on the call, a translation issue caused the miscommunication. Wolfe was not saying that Yamamoto preferred or required a team with a Japanese player.
Wolfe did not respond to a request for comment.
As previously reported, people close to Yamamoto say that he is intrigued by the idea of playing for the Yankees -- but is open to many destinations. He is particularly close with Boston outfielder Masataka Yoshida and San Diego pitcher Yu Darvish.
The Mets are extremely interested in the player and will strongly pursue him.