Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the Nippon Professional Baseball star jumping to MLB this winter, is expected to meet with interested teams in early December, according to a person familiar with the process.
As of now, he is not requiring that interested teams show them their ballpark or host them in their home city. He is also not currently planning to be at the Winter Meetings, which take place in Nashville from Dec. 3 through Dec. 6.
The Yankees and Mets, of course, will be among the teams to meet with Yamamoto. The pitcher is attracting widespread interest, with both New York teams heavily in the mix. The player is intrigued by the idea of playing for the Yankees, per sources, but other big-market clubs like the Mets, Red Sox, Dodgers and Phillies are also contenders.
Yamamoto’s posting process is now complete. Starting Tuesday he has 45 days to sign with a team.
Teams are preparing their presentations to Yamamoto, but do not yet know precisely where or when that will happen -- an expected phase of the process until Yamamoto is officially posted.