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Yamamoto is still getting the winter's second-largest contract outside of a unicorn (Shohei Ohtani) going up against established MLB'ers and the second-largest total value contract for a pitcher in history. That's remarkable. And he's 5-foot-10.
But now you're moving the goal posts with these new names. We're talking about top level, established Japanese pitchers.
Michael Nakamura? He was signed as an amateur. WTF does he have to do with this conversation? He's no different from Brady Aiken.
Kenta Meada has had a great run. Third in the ROY voting in 2016 and then was top 3 in the Cy Young voting in 2020. He has a career 3.83 K/BB ratio! That's impressive. What's your standard? Hall of Famer?
Shintaro Fujinami wasn't even a high profile signing nor had high expectations that came with his signing. He made $3.25 million last year. You're lowering the bar again by bringing him up. Same with Kyuji Fujikawa. He never made more than $4.5 million in a season. Never expected to be anything but rotation depth.
I will give you Yusei, but he did have shoulder problems and diminished stuff before he came over here and he signed a creative deal where he got $43 million for three years with options instead of the $100 million some thought he would get.
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