Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s free-agency tour has reached the East Coast.
The Japanese ace was set to meet with the Yankees on Sunday, after a night earlier dining with a contingent of Mets officials at team owner Steve Cohen’s home in Greenwich, Conn., according to sources.
Yamamoto’s meetings with the New York teams began a second round of in-person interviews.
Cohen and Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns both flew to Japan to meet the right-hander before the winter meetings, and Yankees officials huddled with Yamamoto last Monday in Southern California.
The Yankees’ traveling group included owner Hal Steinbrenner, general manager Brian Cashman, team president Randy Levine, manager Aaron Boone and pitching coach Matt Blake.
Bidding for Yamamoto was expected to begin at $200 million, but that number could swell beyond $300 million before the process is complete.
Other teams that reportedly met with Yamamoto and his camp in the last week include the Giants, Dodgers, Phillies and Red Sox.
The Post’s Joel Sherman first reported Yamamoto’s dinner meeting at Cohen’s home Saturday night.
Stearns, manager Carlos Mendoza and pitching coach Jeremy Hefner also attended what was described as a fact-finding meeting for Yamamoto.
The Mets have coveted the 25-year-old star as somebody who can anchor their rotation and help expand the organization’s brand internationally.
But it’s also thought Yamamoto craves the spotlight and could be sold on the idea of trying to restore the Yankees’ championship pedigree.
The Dodgers can sell Yamamoto on playing alongside Shohei Ohtani, who arrived to the team last week on a 10-year contract worth $700 million that includes heavy deferrals, making it easier for the Dodgers to still sign Yamamoto.
The Dodgers in recent days bolstered their rotation by trading with the Rays for Tyler Glasnow and signing the right-hander to a five-year contract worth $136.5 million.
Last season Yamamoto won a third straight Sawamura award (the Japanese equivalent of the Cy Young) with the Orix Buffaloes.
“He’s a gunslinger,” said a major league official who scouted Yamamoto in person. “He reminds me of David Cone. He just gets the ball and doesn’t give a damn and keeps firing until there’s no bullets left.”
Yamamoto was posted in November and has until Jan. 4 to sign with a team.
Teams and free-agent pitchers are awaiting a resolution that would jump-start what has been a slow developing market.
The next wave of pitchers behind Yamamoto includes two-time Cy Young award winner Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery and Japanese left-hander Shota Imanaga.
The Yankees could slot Yamamoto behind Gerrit Cole for a potentially elite 1-2 combination atop the rotation.
The team addressed the lineup at the winter meetings with the trade that yielded Juan Soto from the Padres.
Kodai Senga’s performance last season after arriving on a five-year contract worth $75 million may have increased the Mets’ appetite for Japanese pitching.
Senga pitched to a 2.98 ERA with 202 strikeouts in 166 ¹/₃ innings and finished second in the National League’s Rookie of the Year voting behind the Diamondbacks’ Corbin Carroll.
Senga has helped in the Mets’ recruitment of Yamamoto, according to a source.
Senga’s presence on the team would seemingly be a selling point to Yamamoto (who has indicated he’s not against the idea of joining a team that has another Japanese player).
But it should also be noted that Senga can potentially opt out from his contract following the 2025 season, so Yamamoto might not put much weight on Senga’s presence.
The Mets still have multiple spots to fill in a rotation that includes Senga, Jose Quintana and Luis Severino.
The former Yankees pitcher Severino was signed before the winter meetings to a one-year contract worth $13 million.
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