Japanese ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto is reportedly on Red Sox radar
BOSTON -- The Red Sox reportedly have eyes on another Japanese superstar. Boston was among the eight teams scouting the latest start by Orix Buffaloes ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, according to the Hochi News.
The Sox could get a pretty good scouting report on Yamamoto from Masataka Yoshida, who was his teammate in Orix for six seasons. But it's pretty easy to see that Yamamoto is a stud on the mound just by looking at the accolades he's earned over his career.
He earned Pacific League MVP and the Sawamura Award (the NPB version of the Cy Young Award) in each of the last two seasons. The righty won the Japanese Triple Crown in each of those seasons -- leading the league in wins, strikeouts, and ERA -- and helped the Buffaloes win the Japan Series last year.
This season, Yamamoto is 9-1 with a 1.66 ERA and 0.823 WHIP, to go along with 101 strikeouts and just 12 walks over 92.1 innings pitched. He has posted some truly ridiculous stats since joining the Buffaloes in 2017 as an 18-year-old, going 67-27 with a 1.82 ERA. In the 2021 season, he posted six complete games and four shutouts.
Yamamoto was a star in the World Baseball Classic a few months ago, tossing four shutout innings with eight strikeouts against Australia in his only start of the tournament. His only other appearance for Japan came out of the bullpen, when he allowed a pair of runs over 3.1 innings in a win over Mexico.
Yamamoto, who will turn 25 in August, is expected to be posted by Orix this coming offseason. It looks like the Red Sox will be in the mix to add him to their rotation when that happens.
