Yankees, Mets, Giants Top FA Options After Yoshinobu Yamamoto's Dodgers Contract
The Los Angeles Dodgers have reportedly once again taken the top available free agent pitcher off the market.
With Yamamoto set to join Shohei Ohtani with the Dodgers on a contract worth more than $300 million, top candidates to sign the Japanese league star are going to have to look elsewhere for starting pitching help in 2024.
What remaining free agency options are left for New York Yankees, New York Mets and San Francisco Giants as both Ohtani and Yamamoto head to Los Angeles?
New York Yankees
The Yankees have reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole at the top of their starting lineup, but behind him are a few question marks.
Carlos Rodón and Nestor Cortés, both of whom are set to start for the Yankees again in 2024, combined in 2023 for a 8-10 record and 5.92 ERA in 127.2 innings in a season riddled with injuries.
In an effort to add some certainty to this rotation, the Yankees might go for the biggest remaining free agent pitchers waiting in the market.
If the Yankees are interested in pairing up two reigning Cy Young winners, they could take a swing at Blake Snell, who is likely to be the kind of marquee signing the Yankees have been looking for, if his injury history doesn't warn them off.
The team could alternatively make a move for Jordan Montgomery, who before becoming a World Series star with the Texas Rangers played for the Yankees from 2017 to 2022. However, general manager Brian Cashman has remained staunch on not regretting the trade that sent Montgomery out of New York.
New York Mets
The Mets assembled the most expensive team in baseball history last season and were unable to get anywhere with it.
But that payroll could help them recover from missing out on Yamamoto this offseason.
After adding starting depth with the acquisition of former Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Adrian Houser, the Mets could use the $300 million it would have taken to acquire Yamamoto to instead add multiple pitchers to the rotation.
Remaining free agent options include veteran starters like Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery or Marcus Stroman.
In addition to a starter who could slot into the front half of the rotation, the Mets could add a closer like three-time NL Reliever of the Year winner Josh Hader. A combined signing of Hader and a starter like Snell would cost about the same as signing Yamamoto alone, according to the New York Post's Jon Heyman.
San Francisco Giants
The Giants, even more than the Yankees and Mets, are under pressure to load up in what is becoming an NL West arms race as the LA Dodgers collect the best pitchers in the market.
The obvious answer is for the Giants to answer by signing Snell. He's the best pitcher currently available on the free agent market, and San Francisco is in need of a proven starter after inconsistent pitching helped sink the team's playoff hopes in 2023.
Unfortunately for the Giants, they aren't the only team interested in Snell, and even former San Francisco star and current ownership group member Buster Posey noted the team is in "a bit of a free-agent slump."
If the Giants are unable to win the bid for Snell, the team may need to turn to the trade market in order to find an answer to Ohtani and Yamamoto joining a rival division team.