Blue Jays have interest in star Japanese pitcher Yamamoto: report

This offseason hasn’t gone the way Toronto Blue Jays management had been hoping, but they are still looking at ways to improve their roster heading into 2024.

The Blue Jays have really put themselves out there this offseason, as they were in serious contention to land Juan Soto from the San Diego Padres, and appeared to be in line to sign Shohei Ohtani. Ultimately, neither came to fruition, but that doesn’t mean the Jays are done trying to add some significant talent.

According to a recent report from TSN’s Scott Mitchell, the Blue Jays are turning their focus towards Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The highly coveted Japanese pitcher has played with the Orix Buffaloes in the NPB for the last couple seasons. During that time he has pitched in five All-Star games and has won the Pacific League MVP in each of the past three years. In total during his six seasons in the NPB, he has a 1.70 ERA along with 922 strikeouts and a 70-29 record.

Definitely some smoke to the #BlueJays at least trying to pivot to Yoshinobu Yamamoto, but with NYM, NYY and LAD chasing the stud righty it’s going to get expensive once again.
There are some in the org completely in love, just like every org across baseball.

— Scott Mitchell (@ScottyMitchTSN) December 12, 2023

There has been some serious hype surrounding Yamamoto as of late, as many teams would love to add him to their rotation for 2024 and beyond. Mitchell is reporting that along with the Blue Jays, the New York Mets, New York Yankees, and the LA Dodgers have also shown plenty of interest.

Given how disappointing it has been for Blue Jays fans to lose out on the Ohtani sweepstakes, it may be difficult to feel excited over this news. While Yamamoto doesn’t carry the star power that Ohtani does, he has a real chance to come over and immediately start dominating in the MLB. If the Jays are able to sign him, they would be adding even more firepower to what is an already elite pitching rotation.

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