Japanese baseball pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto (25, Orix Buffaloes) is seeking to advance to the American Major League (MLB).
According to multiple Japanese media outlets, including Full Count, the Orix team allowed Yamamoto to advance to MLB after the Japan Series ended on the 5th. Yamamoto officially challenges MLB through a posting system (informal competitive bidding).
Yamamoto is a pitcher representing Japanese baseball. He became the first pitcher in Japanese professional baseball history to win five awards as a pitcher for two consecutive years (2021-2022), and won the 'Sawamura Award' given to the best pitcher for three consecutive years. His overall performance in 7 seasons of Japanese professional baseball is 70 wins, 29 losses, 932 strikeouts, and an ERA of 1.82 in 172 games (897 innings).
Yamamoto showed off his true potential this year as well. He pitched in 23 games (164 innings) in the regular season and achieved a record of 16 wins, 6 losses, 167 strikeouts, and an ERA of 1.21. He swept the categories of wins, winning percentage, strikeouts, and earned run average, winning four gold medals for three consecutive years.
In the Japan Series against the Hanshin Tigers, he started 대학대전 토토 the first game and performed poorly, allowing 7 runs in 5⅔ innings, but he came back in the 6th game when the series was down 2 wins and 3 losses, and made a strong impression by striking the here balance with a complete game win on 138 pitches. Orix tied the series record at 3 wins and 3 losses thanks to Yamamoto's comeback, but lost 1 to 7 in Game 7 and finished in second place.
His national team career is also impressive. Yamamoto left a significant mark, including winning the 2019 Premier12 gold medal, the 2021 Tokyo Olympics gold medal, and the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC) championship.
Yamamoto was ranked second in the free agent rankings calculated by MLB's official website, MLB.com, following 'Dual Sword' Shohei Ohtani. Like Yamamoto, Lee Jeong-hoo (Kiwoom), who is attempting to advance to MLB through the posting system, is ranked 13th.
MLB.com reported, “At least eight clubs, including the New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, St. Louis Cardinals, Los Angeles Dodgers, Arizona Diamondbacks, Detroit Tigers, Chicago Cubs, and New York Yankees, have shown interest in Yamamoto.”
Yamamoto, who is trying to advance to the MLB, said, "I had a lot of good experiences at Orix," and expressed his gratitude to the Orix team, saying, "It was a 7-year period in which I was able to grow a lot." He continued by saying, “MLB is the best league, so I want to become a player who can thrive in it.”