MLB Rumors: Vlad Jr. trade talk, Brewers landmark deal, Yankees jinx Yamamoto
- The Toronto Blue Jays have received trade offers for Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
- The Brewers are nearing a landmark deal with their top prospect.
- The Yankees already have Yoshinobu Yamamoto's number picked out.
By Mark Powell
MLB Rumors: Yankees get ahead of themselves with Yoshinobu Yamamoto
The New York Yankees are considered frontrunners for Japanese starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, but he's expected to have plenty of potential suitors, including the New York Mets. Yet, the Yankees evidently feel so confident in signing Yamamoto that they kept his jersey number free for months.
"According to league sources, the Yanks have purposefully held the number 18 for Yamamoto over the past year. That is not only Yamamoto’s number with the Orix Buffaloes, but is traditionally considered the "ace" number in Japan," Andy Martino wrote.
No. 18 was also the number of former Yankees Hiroki Kuroda and Masahiro Tanaka, two Japanese MLB players Yamamoto reportedly idolized. Yamamoto is expected to take in-person meetings after the MLB Winter Meetings, with any coordinated discussions with teams until then to take place over video call.
Yamamoto's agent, Joel Wolfe, spoke recently about the sheer amount of interest the 25-year-old has received so far.
"This is by far the player with the most interested teams that I have ever seen at the beginning of free agency," Wolfe said. "It's what we call a perfect storm, where you have one of the finest young pitchers in the world who also is just 25 years old...It's generational. Something like this only happens once every 10 or 15 years."
Brian Cashman and Co. may have gotten ahead of themselves, especially given the Yankees GM's comments about Giancarlo Stanton just a few weeks ago, which Wolfe did not appreciate.