It’s not Shohei Ohtani’s massively deferred contract money, but Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s Dodgers deal had some quirks built into it too.
The 25-year-old Japanese ace agreed to a 12-year, $325 million deal late Thursday night, giving him the richest total money deal for a pitcher — beating out Gerrit Cole’s nine-year contract with the Yankees by $1 million.
The contract comes with a pair of opt-outs, according to the The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, at six and eight years.
The baseball insider also reported the deal is “somewhat backloaded” in reference to salary, meaning opting out would leave bigger salaries on the table.
For the Dodgers, the contract includes a $50 million bonus, and a $50.6 million fee to be paid to the Nippon Professional League’s Prix Buffaloes for posting Yamamoto.
All told, Yamamoto’s cost exceeds $375 million.
If the righty’s NPL domination extends to MLB, it will have been worth it.
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He’s won three straight MVP awards and Sawamura Awards — the NPL’s Cy Young equivalent — while posting a 1.65 ERA, a nearly 5:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio and averaging one home run against per 28 innings pitcher over 820 1/3 frames with the Buffaloes.
The deal follows Ohtani’s historic contract, a 10-year, $700 million deal that includes $680 million in deferred cash and a key-man clause.
Ohtani reportedly helped woo his countryman, who brings a 99-mph “riding fastball, above-average curveball and a swing-and-miss type split,” to Los Angeles, one scout told The Post’s Joel Sherman.
It’s a (relatively) small price to pay for what will be a big part of their rotation: the Dodgers have spent more than $1 billion this offseason to revamp their lineup with pitcher Tyler Glasnow’s five-year extension worth $136.5 million.
Oh, and they may not be done, according to Rosenthal, who noted that Los Angeles still has about $15 million left before hitting the top luxury tax tier.
“The team still could trade for another starting pitcher to go with Yamamoto, Glasnow, Walker Buehler and Bobby Miller,” Rosenthal wrote Friday. “They also might attempt to upgrade at shortstop.”
