Daniel Shirey/WBCI/MLB Photos via Getty ImagesThis year happened to mark the 100th birthday of the iconic "HOLLYWOOD" sign that dominates the Los Angeles landscape from atop Mount Lee. It's been renovated and improved many times, including with a new coat of white paint just this year.
Yet it may be time to change the actual text of the sign, in which case there can be only one modest proposal: "DODGERWOOD."
The stars will, after all, be out like never before at Dodger Stadium in the years to come. The Dodgers had already made sure of that with their history-upending $700 million contract with Shohei Ohtani, and now they've signed the other best player on the free agent market.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto may not be another two-way superstar in the mold of his Japanese countryman, but the Dodgers are clearly big believers in the 25-year-old's right arm. Otherwise, they wouldn't have signed him for a pitcher-record 12-year, $325 million contract.
B/R Walk-Off @BRWalkoffYoshinobu Yamamoto gets the most guaranteed $$ for a starting pitcher in MLB history.<br><br>His next pitch in an MLB game will be his first pitch in an MLB game. <a href="https://t.co/i21AqCKiiL">pic.twitter.com/i21AqCKiiL</a>
Factoring in their post-trade $136.5 million extension with right-hander Tyler Glasnow and $17 million worth of deals to retain outfielder Jason Heyward and reliever Joe Kelly, the Dodgers have added just south of $1.2 billion dollars to their books.
Assuming the idea is to construct a team that will have more than just Dodgers fans tuning in, it doesn't seem too early to declare the mission accomplished.
Meet Your New Favorite Pitcher
With Ohtani limited to hitting duties while his right arm recovers from elbow surgery throughout 2024, it'll likely be Yamamoto on the mound for the Dodgers' home opener—not to be confused with their overall opener in South Korea on March 20—on March 28, 2024.
Anyone want to bet that it's going to be the most watched opener in Major League Baseball history?
It would have been a big enough draw simply as the first chance to see Ohtani alongside fellow MVPs Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman amid a sea of Dodger Blue for the first time. But now it'll also be a chance to see Yamamoto, which means a chance to see what all the fuss is about.
In a nutshell, this is what it's about:
- 5-time Nippon Professional Baseball All-Star
- 3-time Pacific League MVP
- 3-time Eiji Sawamura Award winner
- 2022 Japan Series champion
- 2023 World Baseball Classic champion
- 4-time Pacific League ERA leader
- 2 no-hitters
- Career 1.72 ERA
- Probably an Olympic javelin thrower in a past life
That a pitcher with these credentials exists at all is incredible. That he exists at a point in time when he's only gone through his age-24 season is a danged miracle.
Talkin' Baseball @TalkinBaseball_Yoshinobu Yamamoto just pitched a complete game on 138 pitches in his last start before becoming an MLB free agent<br><br>He had 14 strikeouts, breaking Yu Darvish's Japan Series record <a href="https://t.co/SleSD0Kl4c">pic.twitter.com/SleSD0Kl4c</a>
There's no proper MLB comp for what the Dodgers have just invested in. Maybe if, say, Roger Clemens, Dwight Gooden, Félix Hernández or Clayton Kershaw had reached free agency after their age-24 seasons, but that didn't happen. It's a time when most major league pitchers are just getting started.
The question should perhaps be whether Yamamoto's talents will play in the majors, but the list of people who doubt it seems empty.
Some names that pop up in MLB.com's David Adler's rundown of Yamamoto's pitches include Kevin Gausman for his fastball, Kershaw for his curveball, Ohtani for his splitter and Gerrit Cole for his cutter. He also averaged just 2.0 walks per nine innings in Japan, a sign that his command is tack-like sharp.
Which is to say that the makings of the Dodgers' next rookie sensation are there. And we might not even be just talking "Puigmania," "Nomomania" or even "Fernandomania," but rather something akin to an alternative scenario wherein Ichiro Suzuki's fabled 2001 season was headquartered at Chavez Ravine.
Behold, Peak Dodgers
In some ways, it's hard to imagine the Dodgers getting any bigger than they already are.
They've dominated baseball in all sorts of ways over the last decade, not least of which by winning 91 more games than any other team. They've also spent $2.3 billion just on their Opening Day payrolls along the way, though going 11-for-11 in leading MLB in attendance since 2013 has more than helped subsidize those.
For all the ways the Dodgers have dominated, the one way in which they've fallen short is a secret to nobody. One would say they "somehow" don't have the most postseasons wins since 2013, but it's quite simple: Save for when they won the World Series at the end of MLB's gas leak year in 2020, the Dodgers have routinely disappointed in October.
President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and the Dodgers' ownership are clearly sick of it. Between Ohtani, Yamamoto and Glasnow, they've now done exactly as many nine-figure deals this winter as they had in the last eight years put together.
The result, as of now, is a team with a projected $285 million payroll that's as talented as it is star-studded.
MLB @MLBJapan ➡️ L.A. <a href="https://t.co/zwHBKGMYZL">pic.twitter.com/zwHBKGMYZL</a>
If you count the MVPs that Yamamoto and Ohtani won in Japan, the two of them plus Betts and Freeman have eight MVP awards between them. The Dodgers otherwise have All-Stars at catcher (Will Smith), third base (Max Muncy), left field (Chris Taylor) and right field (Heyward), plus in their rotation (Walker Buehler) and bullpen (Blake Treinen).
All this should result in the Dodgers' fourth straight 100-win season in 2024. An 11th National League West title in the last 12 years seems all but certain, especially with the San Diego Padres cutting payroll and the San Francisco Giants apparently doomed to miss out on stars forever. The National League champion Arizona Diamondbacks are still good, granted, but even they finished 16 games behind the Dodgers this year.
As for next year's World Series, the Dodgers not winning it would be their biggest letdown yet. If you don't want to take that from me, you can take it from the early betting odds.
The Baseball World and Los Angeles Now Revolve Around the Dodgers
It should be more than a mere footnote that the Dodgers beat out not one, but two New York teams to get Yamamoto.
The Yankees and Mets wanted him bad, alright, and Yamamoto's interest was mutual enough that he met with both teams twice. Both clubs ultimately made serious bids, with SNY's Andy Martino reporting that the Mets matched the Dodgers' offer and that the Yankees went to 10 years and $300 million.
Though he probably wouldn't have done so if their offer hadn't been competitive, Yamamoto spurning the New York teams to sign with the Dodgers feels emblematic. The latest sign, one might say, of how the center of the baseball world is shifting from New York to Los Angeles.
To be sure, the Dodgers have long been inviting this to happen with their efficiency at turning dollars into wins. Who can say whether it's actually working...except for maybe Google. If search trends are any indication, more and more minds have been turning to the Dodgers after the Yankees dominated the early portion of the 21st century.
As to the situation just within Los Angeles, the question now facing the other professionals sports franchises in the area is how they're going to keep fans on their bandwagons after they've seen the Dodgers.
Those same Google metrics reveal that interest in the Dodgers dominates that of even the Lakers within California. That trend may only reverse if LeBron James goes all Benjamin Button and starts aging backward. Meanwhile, the Clippers are still doing their little brother thing and both the Rams and the Chargers are too deep in mediocrity to capture hearts and minds of Angelenos.
Rich Eisen @richeisenLoudest cheer of the night outside of the Puka TD: Shohei Ohtani on the oculus. <a href="https://twitter.com/Dodgers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Dodgers</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/RamsNFL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RamsNFL</a> <a href="https://t.co/FkhpCV8KiJ">pic.twitter.com/FkhpCV8KiJ</a>
It's otherwise hard to separate the Dodgers' deals with Ohtani and Yamamoto from the footing they stand to gain in Japan and its diaspora. Los Angeles has the highest Japanese population of any state in the Lower 48. Meanwhile in the country itself, they're already going a little Dodger crazy.
If nothing else, you have to admire the Dodgers' ambition. To be center of attention just within baseball for a decade will get you books written about you. But to be the center of attention across multiple sports, states and nations? That deserves something more.
Just sayin': a sign on top of a mountain would do nicely.
ncG1vNJzZmianJqupLTEq6meqJ%2BnwW%2BvzqZmmqqknrCtsdJoaGlpYGd%2BeH6MqJ%2BtmZ6eeqK6w2awmqWRory1u9Jmm6icl5q%2FtHnAq5xmpp%2BseqO1xqCcrKxdqMGivoyipWakkWKur7CMpqObq12iwrTAjKycnmWkmq6u