2024 review: Yoshinobu Yamamoto

Dodgers fans enjoy an eventful and successful inaugural campaign with the Japanese ace

To the surprise of just about everyone last season, the Dodgers landed Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the most decorated pitcher to come out of Japan in a generation. Naturally, there was some agita in other quarters about the decision.

For all the drama that current staff ace Yamamoto generated in 2024, it is important to remember three salient facts:

1. This roller coaster of a season was only the first season in a 12-year, $325 million deal;
2. Yamamoto pitched in just 90 innings in the regular season and 18⅔ IP in the postseason. To put that figure in some perspective, Adric and I were present for 153 innings of the Dodgers’ regular season; and
3. With the World Series title, Yamamoto is arguably the most decorated pitcher in the world, as he has won a Japan Series, a World Series, a World Baseball Classic, and an Olympic gold medal by the ripe old age of 26.

I have felt like a mad prophet about Yamamoto through the 2024 season. While I understandably had doubts about the Dodgers in the postseason, the one person I never lost faith in in 2024 was Yoshinobu Yamamoto. I can understand why some were slow to get on the Yamamoto bandwagon, when you have an arsenal like Yamamoto’s, the sky is literally the limit.

While he was still on a Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) rest schedule of pitching once a week, his season largely came down to one of three questions, from worst to best.

Was it his first time against the San Diego Padres?

Yamamoto had a knack for making lousy first impressions to the uninitiated. In limited action, a large measure of his success could be found by asking whether it was his first time facing the Padres in a given setting.

If the answer was yes, then Yamamoto was far from his best. In his regular season debut in Seoul, South Korea, and postseason debut, this hurler known for his exceptional control would lose it and become quite mortal on the mound.

• March 21: 1 IP, 4 H, 5 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 HBP
• October 5 (NLDS Game 1): 3 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 1 HR

In fact, if you discount his disastrous Seoul Series start, his regular season ERA drops by about half a run. If you discount his middling showing in NLDS Game 1, his 2024 postseason ERA drops by more than half (1.72 vs 3.86).

Yamamoto admitted to nerves playing a factor in South Korea and after Game 1.

Was he injured?

For most of the year, Yamamoto was sidelined with a right rotator cuff strain that kept him out from mid-June to mid-September. Thankfully, Yamamoto was able to get some semblance of a schedule once he returned in September, with four regularly scheduled starts to use a tune-up before the playoff run.

The normally reliable Yamamoto, who averaged at least 160 innings in NPB during his three consecutive pitching triple crown seasons, managed just over half that workload with 90 regular season innings in his inaugural campaign.

Otherwise, was he handed the ball on his scheduled start day?

Apart from the injury and the debut blips, Yamamoto was solid, bordering on spectacular during his rookie campaign with the Dodgers. With his six-pitch arsenal of 4-seam fastball, splitter, curveball, cutter, slider, and sinker, he showed the prowess that led to the largest contract for a pitcher in MLB history.

For the year, opponents had the following slash line against him: .229/.275/.365.

Yamamoto’s 2024 was a year filled with symmetry. For every anxiety-inducing start against an NL West opponent, there was a start where he dominated, usually a team from either the AL or NL East. From the Bronx to San Francisco to Dodger Stadium, while Yamamoto did not consistently reach the heights of his pedigree, he was a solid rookie who showed up when the Dodgers needed him to perform.

Going forward, Yamamoto needs to work further acclimating to the American pitch schedule and his pitch efficiency as he averaged about 4⅔ innings in the playoffs and five innings during the regular season.

Yamamoto pitched past the fifth inning just seven times in the regular season and once in the playoffs. Considering he averaged just over seven innings a start during his final campaign for the Orix Buffaloes in 2023, it is not an unreasonable expectation for Yamamoto to make it past the fifth inning while pitching for the Dodgers.

I only saw Yamamoto once in person in 2024, in a start in which he nearly had his head taken off by a comebacker. Thankfully, he was fine.

What I remember most from that start, other than the comebacker, was a Japanese woman who showed up and was quite excited to watch Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani. I noticed other Japanese fans around the ballpark in rapt attention to both Yamamoto and Ohtani, which imparted a rock star-like quality to the 2024 season.

Yamamoto has style and the fanbase has taken to the rookie right-hander, especially after his postseason heroics. Before the postseason, I argued that the Dodgers’ success would largely be dependent on Yamamoto’s effectiveness, especially in the NLDS against the San Diego Padres. Despite anxiety from the fanbase and a rocky Game 1 start, Yamamoto excelled for the rest of the postseason.

If Yamamoto reaches even close to his NPB metrics for effectiveness and length in 2025, the Dodgers will certainly take those results without any complaint.

2024 particulars

Age: 25

Stats: 7-2, 3.00 ERA, 2.61 FIP, 90 IP, 22 BB, 105 K, 2.8 fWAR, 1.7 rWAR

Salary: $5 million, plus the entirety of his $50 million signing bonus

Game of the year

While it would be tempting to say Game 2 of the 2024 World Series against the New York Yankees, special consideration has to be given to his first encounter against the Yankees on June 7, before his shoulder injury. Yamamoto pitched seven shutout innings, yielding only two hits and striking out seven.

Roster status

Yamamoto is under contract through 2035, and will earn $10 million in 2025. He has two opt-out clauses, the first of which could potentially be triggered after the 2029 season, barring any right elbow injury lasting for at least 134 consecutive service days during the 2024 through 2029 seasons.