DEAL DONE: Philadelphia Phillies has officially announce the signing of a talented player…
Ohtani in 2017, the Phillies took their shot at signing a Japanese superstar.
News broke late Thursday night that right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto reportedly agreed to a record-setting 12-year, $325 million contract with the Dodgers.
Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, as well as other sources, said the Phils made a strong enough offer to believe they were contenders, along with the Dodgers, Yankees and Mets.
“I think we were extremely competitive,” Dombrowski said. “We were very, very competitive. We were aggressive.
When we made our presentation [last week in Los Angeles], I think our guys did a tremendous job. I think they presented the organization well.”
Sources declined to reveal the Phillies’ final offer, but the deeper they got into negotiations, the more they realized Yamamoto simply preferred Los Angeles and New York over Philadelphia.
Perhaps no amount of money could have changed that.
“I don’t think it had anything to do with anything else, he just preferred to be a Dodger,” Dombrowski said. “Ultimately he was just not a person attuned to coming to Philly.”
But the Phillies tried anyway because they considered Yamamoto a unique opportunity. He is an elite-level starting pitcher who is just 25 years old.
“That’s why we jumped in,” Dombrowski said.
The Phillies were involved from the very beginning of the offseason. When they signed Aaron Nola to a seven-year, $172 million contract in November, they said publicly that any future roster improvements would be mostly complementary (i.e. rotation, bullpen and possibly outfield depth).
But sources said they would make an exception for Yamamoto, even if they considered themselves longshots.
