When the Dodgers signed 25-year-old right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto to a 12-year / $325 million contract in late December, there were undoubtedly many Dodgers (and baseball) fans who immediately thought or said: “No one is worth that kind of money for that many years.” If you do the math (I’ll spare you), this averages out to $27,083 million per year.

As a point of reference, according to Forbes, the average salary nationwide was $59,428 in the US in 2023 ($73,220 in California).

That being said, anyone who watched the Bizen, Japan native, who spent seven seasons pitching for the Orix Buffaloes of the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) where he posted a ridiculous 75-30 record and even more ridiculous 1.72 ERA, pitch in his Dodgers debut against the Texas Rangers at Surprise Stadium on Wednesday afternoon also undoubtedly said “Huh…”

All the (very) hard throwing right-hander (with an unhittable splitter) did was allow no runs and only one hit in his 2.0 innings pitched, during which he walked none and struck out three of the six batters he faced, doing so 19 pitches of which 16 were strikes.

“Certainly very efficient today and no surprise he controlled his emotions,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told SportsNet LA‘s Kirsten Watson postgame. “I’m sure he was excited, you couldn’t tell it, and he was just out there professional, attacking, and he got a chance to use his fastball, the split, the slider, the curveball. So, he was really good today.”

“I was trying to just, you know, do my job and then try to stay calm, and then focus on what I have to do from the get go,” Yamamoto told Watson through an interpreter.

Former Dodger and current Dodgers broadcaster Rick Monday summed it up best:

 “As advertised.”  

Play Ball!

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