Finally, Japan's Yoshinobu Yamamoto has found his next niche. And not for peanuts.
Indeed, the Los Angeles Dodgers continued to take ownership of the MLB off-season last night (Thursday) by reaching a 12-year deal worth $325 million with the Japanese pitcher.
This is the largest contract ever awarded to a pitcher in terms of total money.
Which means that Los Angeles has just exceeded a billion dollars in salary expenditure since the start of this off-season.
That's more than the 29 other major league baseball clubs combined. Pure madness.
Yesterday's pact came less than two weeks after Los Angeles lured Japanese prodigy Shohei Ohtani to the hot California sun with a record ten-year contract worth $700 million (including $680 million in deferred money).
The two protagonists, who together won the 2023 World Baseball Classic title with Team Japan, were considered the two best players on the free agent market.
Then, between the arrival of the two Japanese stars, the Dodgers acquired Tyler Glasnow from the Tampa Bay Rays and granted him a five-year contract extension worth $135 million.
Thus, since December 9, the Californian team has spent more than 1.1 billion dollars to add three players.
This does not guarantee a championship, however, as evidenced by their early eliminations in recent campaigns. However, we are moving to another level with this winter's acquisitions, at least on paper.
Finally, the free agent and trade market can officially open.
