MLB Rumors: Braves Cease advantage, Yamamoto NL East offers, Imanaga rivalry brewing

MLB Rumors: Offers from NL East teams for Yoshinobu Yamamoto revealed

Yoshinobu Yamamoto was such an intriguing free agent for a variety of reasons. He's supremely talented and one of the more accomplished Japanese pitchers we've seen come to MLB, and to top it all off he's just 25 years old. His youth and talent combined with the fact that he hasn't had major injury issues made him one of the highest-touted international free agents we've seen.

Yamamoto not only likely got the second-highest-paid deal of the offseason behind Ohtani, he broke Gerrit Cole's record for the largest contract a pitcher has ever received. Yamamoto signed a 12-year deal worth $325 million, $1 million more than Cole's $324 million deal with the Yankees.

While the Dodgers got him, fans have been wondering how serious other teams were in their pursuits. We don't have numbers for every team that was linked to Yamamoto, but we have an idea of just how serious two NL East teams were in their pursuit of Yamamoto.

The New York Mets were considered to be one of the favorites throughout the entire process, and Jeff Passan of ESPN confirmed what had already been reported about them. Their offer was in excess of $300 million, which is just hard to even fathom for a pitcher who has yet to pitch in MLB.

The Philadelphia Phillies were more of a surprise Yamamoto suitor but appeared to be very serious as well considering they were another team that submitted an offer of over $300 million. The Phillies being that committed to signing Yamamoto is a bit surprising considering how much money they have already invested long-term into their team, but with Zack Wheeler being a free agent after the year, it does make a lot of sense.

Whether the Mets and Phillies pivot to another high-priced starter like Blake Snell or Jordan Montgomery remains to be seen, but it's certainly eye-opening to see them be willing to throw that kind of money around.