MLB rumors: 4 teams that satisfy both of Yamamoto's wish list items

Yoshinobu Yamamoto was posted by the Orix Buffaloes on Monday, which means the Nippon starting pitcher has a little less than 45 days remaining to agree on a contract with an MLB team. The soon-to-be MLB starting pitcher is widely viewed as the second-best free agent available in MLB this winter, behind star two-way player Shohei Ohtani.

Yamamoto's potential landing spots have not crystalized with much predictive confidence just yet, as the star pitcher has yet to formally meet with MLB clubs.

Looking at what we know thus far, though, we can surmise a few likely landing spots. Yamamoto may not have carte blanche to control his own destiny, but it's reasonable to expect most MLB teams would be open to signing him to a competitive contract.

Yamamoto is thought to prefer a large market first and foremost, and secondly, wants to play on a team that has another Japanese player, according to recent reports. He has no specific preference for the West Coast as Ohtani did when he was posted six years ago.

Those two clues help us identify a few possibilities, keeping in mind these wish list items alone are not the end-all-be-all for the recently-posted pitcher. Some believe the preference for a Japanese teammate is less a preference and more an element he would be merely content with.

Clue No. 2 -- his desire to play with another Japanese player -- would be interesting because culturally, some Japanese players have preferred to play on teams with no other Japanese players (subscription required), as pointed out by Ken Rosenthal some time ago, due to the existence of hierarchies in Japanese culture.

Yamamoto was previously thought to not care about the cultural hierarchy (subscription required) element, but we now have learned he actually isn't just indifferent on the topic, he may prefer to play with another Japanese player.

So, what teams check off both boxes?