With one big fish reeled in, the Yankees will take a key step in luring another Monday.
Brian Cashman and Co. will meet with Yoshinobu Yamamoto and his representatives in Southern California as they continue their pursuit of the stud Japanese right-hander.
While trading for Juan Soto represented the first major move of the Yankees’ offseason, landing Yamamoto — amid a crowd of big-market teams chasing him — would serve as an emphatic double-down as they try to push their chips to the middle of the table.
The Yankees have scouted Yamamoto extensively, including Cashman’s flying to Japan in September and seeing him throw a no-hitter.
Many of Cashman’s top lieutenants have also scouted Yamamoto in person, leaving the Yankees high on the 25-year-old’s potential.
“We were impressed,” Cashman said during last week’s winter meetings. “There’s reasons we send our pro scouts over and we have a scout on the ground over there, to make sure we don’t miss out on any opportunities that might present themselves. He’s a tremendous opportunity for anybody and I’ll just leave it at that. But a very impressive and talented player.”
Of course, the Yankees have some stiff competition in pulling down Yamamoto, led by their crosstown rival.
Mets owner Steve Cohen and president of baseball operations David Stearns flew to Japan two weeks ago to meet with Yamamoto and his family.
The Dodgers, even after going all in to sign Shohei Ohtani to a 10-year, $700 million contract, are still interested in Yamamoto, per The Post’s Jon Heyman.
The Giants, Red Sox, Cubs and Phillies are among the other teams that have also been linked to Yamamoto.
That crowded competition could help push the total price tag for Yamamoto — including posting fees — as high as $300 million.
“We’ll compete,” Cashman said of the bidding. “But I don’t know what the other teams — unless the agent [Joel Wolfe] shares the offers, we’re not going to know what other teams are throwing. So we just got to put our best foot forward and what we think we are willing to do. Hopefully we’re gonna hit the right spot for him.”
The Yankees appear willing to surpass the highest luxury-tax threshold of $297 million to land Yamamoto.
They already took on the salary of Soto (projected to be around $33 million in his final year of arbitration) and adding Yamamoto would almost certainly put them over $300 million in luxury-tax payroll, unless they decide to shed salary elsewhere on the roster.
“This isn’t a nuanced diamond in the rough,” manager Aaron Boone said. “I think everyone sees [Yamamoto] as a pretty special frontline type starter.”
To get Soto, the Yankees had to sacrifice right-hander Michael King (plus three other starting pitchers), meaning they now have a hole in their rotation.
It is led by newly crowned AL Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole, but features some question marks behind him as Carlos Rodon and Nestor Cortes will be trying to return to form from injuries and Clarke Schmidt will be tasked with building off a season in which he threw a career-high 159 innings.
In Yamamoto — a three-time winner of Nippon Professional Baseball’s top pitcher award — the Yankees see another strong potential piece of the rotation for years to come.
“Really high-level strike-thrower,” pitching coach Matt Blake said at the winter meetings. “Really good athlete. Got a wide arsenal. Obviously a track record of success. There’s a lot of pieces to like there that should translate to the American game.”
While meeting with Yamamoto, the Yankees can point to the success they have had with other Japanese stars playing in The Bronx, including Masahiro Tanaka and Hideki Matsui. Cashman would not say whether those two would be involved in recruiting Yamamoto, but the Yankees’ worldwide brand could also work in their favor.
“I think we have a lot of things to be proud of and a lot of things that we can count on as allowing us to be an attractive destination,” Cashman said a few days before referring to the Yankees wanting to be the “mecca of baseball.”
“Not just for players coming from Japan, but … yeah, we’ve had players come here, thrive here, enjoy it here,” Cashman said. “And obviously them carrying those types of messages back, whether it’s directly through us or indirectly already because they’re asked questions by players over there, what’s it like and stuff — I think it’s all helpful.”
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