What does the #18 mean to you? It means Johnny Damon and Didi Gregorius to me and likely others. The last time #18 was worn by a Yankee is was when Andrew Benintendi played for the team. But to Yoshinobu Yamamoto, #18 could mean everything. As reported by SNY, "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." So could this small gesture lure Yamamoto to the Yankees? Let's drill deeper.
"Hiroki Kuroda, a onetime NPB ace, wore 18 with the Yankees. Masahiro Tanaka wore number 18 as an ace for the NPB’s Rakuten Golden Eagles before signing with the Yankees, but took 19 in New York out of respect for Kuroda, who was still on the team," reported SNY. God I love that Tanaka! He truly gave ace-like performance as a Yankee and could Yamamoto be next?
There are several teams linked to the Japanese ace right now including the cross town rival New York Mets. But guess what? #18 is about to be retired to honor Met favorite Darryl Strawberry. According to the New York Post, "Yamamoto, by all indications, would be the right fit for both the Mets and the Yankees. Which doesn’t mean he will end up here; there’s more teams with money to spend now than there’s been since the dawn of free agency in 1976, when the numbers were still low enough that even small-market teams like Montreal and Cleveland were big free-agent players. But when the bids begin to build, assuming Yamamoto is bullish on New York, he can do what precious few have ever done: Craft a full-scale bidding war between baseball’s two fiscal monoliths."
Yet to throw another wrench into the free agency mix, there's Shohei Ohtani who the Post calls "the biggest prize on the market." Although the Yankees and the Mets for that matter are longshots for a deal with Ohtani, Steve Cohen has shown how deep his pockets can go. He even tried to throw his hat in the ring for Aaron Judge. And we know how that went down.
So could the Yankees go for it? The asking price before a bidding war ensues is $200 million. And the bidding war could also include the Dodgers, Red Sox and Giants- all who have #18 available by the way. But if Yamamoto wants to be a Yankee and the Yankees are willing to go for it, we may have our modern day Tanaka come spring.
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--Suzie Pinstripe
BYB Senior Managing Editor
Twitter: @suzieprof
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