Yankees And Mets Are Stepping Up Their Game With This Meeting As…….

Yankees and Mets are stepping up their game with this meeting as Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s pursuit heats up.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s tour of free agencies has extended to the Eastern Seaboard.

According to sources, the Japanese star had dinner with a group of Mets officials at team owner Steve Cohen’s Greenwich, Connecticut, home the previous evening before meeting with the Yankees on Sunday.

Yamamoto started a second round of in-person interviews with the teams in New York.

Before the winter meetings, Cohen and David Stearns, the president of baseball operations for the Mets, travelled to Japan to meet with the right-hander. Last Monday, Yankees officials met with Yamamoto in Southern California.

Owner Hal Steinbrenner, general manager Brian Cashman, team president Randy Levine, manager Aaron Boone, and pitching coach Matt Blake were among the Yankees travelling party.

According to Jon Heyman of The Post, Yamamoto ordered the second meeting with the Yankees.

It was anticipated that the bidding for Yamamoto would start at $200 million, but before the process is over, it may rise to $300 million.

The Red Sox, Giants, Dodgers, and Phillies are among the other teams that supposedly had meetings with Yamamoto and his camp in the previous week.

Joel Sherman of The Post broke the initial news of Yamamoto’s Saturday night dinner meeting at Cohen’s house.

It was said that Stearns, manager Carlos Mendoza, and pitching coach Jeremy Hefner were present at a meeting for Yamamoto to gather information.

The 25-year-old star has long been sought after by the Mets, who see him as a key member of their rotation and a potential ambassador for the team abroad.

However, it’s also believed that Yamamoto is a people-pleaser and might be persuaded to attempt to revive the Yankees’ championship history.

It will be simpler for the Dodgers to sign Yamamoto if they can persuade him to play alongside Shohei Ohtani, who joined the team last week on a $700 million, ten-year contract with significant deferrals.

The Dodgers signed right-hander Tyler Glasnow to a five-year, $136.5 million contract in recent days, strengthening their rotation. Glasnow was acquired via a trade with the Rays.

With the Orix Buffaloes, Yamamoto won a Sawamura award (the Japanese version of the Cy Young) for the third consecutive season last season.

A major league official who personally scouted Yamamoto described him as a “gunslinger.” He makes me think of David Cone. He simply grabs the ball, doesn’t care, and fires until there are no more bullets.

Yamamoto has until January 4 to sign a contract with a team after being posted in November.

Teams and free-agent pitchers are waiting for a settlement to ignite the market, which has been slowly growing.

After Yamamoto comes a group of pitchers that includes Japanese left-hander Shota Imanaga, Jordan Montgomery, and two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell.

The Yankees might position Yamamoto behind Gerrit Cole in the lineup for a potentially outstanding 1-2 punch.

At the winter meetings, the team made a trade that resulted in Juan Soto from the Padres to address the lineup.

After signing a $75 million, five-year contract, Kodai Senga’s performance in the previous season may have whetted the Mets’ appetite for Japanese pitching.

Senga was second in the National League’s Rookie of the Year voting, behind Diamondbacks’ Corbin Carroll, with a 2.98 ERA and 202 strikeouts in 166 ³/₃ innings.

Yamamoto would presumably find Senga’s inclusion on the squad appealing (he has stated he isn’t opposed to the idea of joining a team that has another Japanese player).