Yoshinobu Yamamoto
Baseball · Japan
Former Orix ace and Dodgers starter — three NPB Triple Crowns, then October baseball in Los Angeles.
Updated Jul 23, 2026
- Team
- Los Angeles Dodgers
- Active since
- 2017 (NPB); 2024 (MLB)
- Has played for
- Orix Buffaloes (NPB) · Samurai Japan
Key stats
- NPB (Orix): 68–29, 1.84 ERA, 901 K in 883 IP — three straight Triple Crowns and PL MVPs (2021–23)
- Japan Series champion with Orix; Olympic gold (Tokyo 2020) and 2023 WBC champion with Japan
- MLB (Dodgers): 2025 World Series MVP and back-to-back World Series champion
- 2025 regular season: 174.2 IP, 200+ strikeouts in a full ace workload
- 12-year, $325 million Dodgers deal after posting (plus ~$50.6M release fee to Orix)
- Wears No. 18 — Japan’s traditional ace number — on both sides of the Pacific
Yoshinobu Yamamoto was born on 17 August 1998 in Bizen, Okayama. Orix drafted him in 2017, and by the early 2020s he was the most decorated pitcher in NPB — three straight Triple Crowns and Pacific League MVPs while helping Orix win a Japan Series.
Internationally he collected Olympic gold in Tokyo and starred for Japan at the 2023 World Baseball Classic. When Orix posted him, the Dodgers won a 12-year, $325 million bidding war and paid a posting fee north of $50 million — treating a Japanese ace as a finished top-of-rotation product.
His MLB debut was rocky; the seasons after were not. He has piled up strikeouts, All-Star recognition, and October innings, including a World Series MVP turn as Los Angeles repeated as champions.
Yamamoto’s story is the counterweight to the teenage phenom narrative. He arrived fully formed from NPB, and the bet was translation, not projection. If he stays healthy, he is the cleanest modern argument that Japan’s best starters can skip the “adjustment year” excuse — and that posting fees will keep climbing when the next Triple Crown pitcher becomes available.
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