Cardinals rumors: Cardinals best target now available, Former player hiring misses mark, Lynn signing explained

Yamamoto posted: Cardinals and 29 other teams are on the clock

The crown jewel of the offseason is undoubtedly Shohei Ohtani, but how far behind is Yoshinobu Yamamoto? Yamamoto entered free agency on Monday when he was posted by the Orix Buffaloes, his team in the Nippon Professional Baseball league.

Yamamoto has 45 days to negotiate with teams and sign a contract, leaving him with a deadline of January 4. If he wants, it should certainly not take that long to find a home in MLB.

The St. Louis Cardinals, in desperate need of reinforcements to their starting rotation, could make great use of Yamamoto.

The star pitcher is just 25 and has become the definitively best pitcher in the NPB. Yet, there's intrigue as to how well he'll perform against MLB teams, a step up in terms of talent from NPB. The Cardinals move to sign Lynn first shows they may value certain skill and durability over mystique combined with upside.

Still, even the most conservative of front offices would surely be licking their chops over the opportunity to sign Yamamoto. One interesting element in regards to Yamamoto is how much he'll way Japanese culture into the decision.

Months ago, Ken Rosenthal pointed out that Japan's hierarchical culture often results in Japanese players prefering to play on teams without other Japanese players on the roster. Lars Nootbaar is one of the youth fixtures for St. Louis, but it's unclear how that may impact Yamamoto's decision.

On one hand, having a cultural touchstone on the roster may be helpful, but if he values the hierarchical aspect of Japanese culture heavily, Nootbaar's presence could be prohibitive to St. Louis's chase.

Will Sammon has reported that Yamamoto is unconventional in this regard and has no issue playing on a team with other Japanese players (subscription required).