Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s heroic, almost inhuman effort in the postseason allowed Dodgers fans to gleefully pull out receipts on anyone who clowned on LA when they initially signed him to a 12-year, $325 million deal, the most lucrative contract for a pitcher.
A lot of people were very loud and wrong about Yamamoto, but the person to get the most heat for his take was former player Josh Reddick, who tweeted in Dec. 2023: “How do you give a guy $325 million without ever throwing a pitch in MLB.”
After Yamamoto consecutive complete postseson games, then followed them with six one-run innings, and then closed Game 7 of the World Series, Dodgers fans were tweeting (or subtweeting) at Reddick so much that he briefly made his Twitter private.
He broke his silence with an appearance on Foul Territory on Thursday and finally admitted his take was awful.
“You know what, I was wrong on this one. […] He’s obviously a very talented pitcher,” Reddick said, but then added, “Do I apologize? Probably not.”
But he still went on to shower Yamamoto with praise. When asked if he thought the contract was worth it, Reddick said, “It’s such a long-term contract. Is this one year gonna be everything he’s got in the tank? […] But if you’re looking at a Dodgers team who has no problem spending this money… […] If I’m the Dodgers, one year of this for what he’s done for that ball club is already worth it to me. […] If he can continue to do this, it’s gonna be an underpay for what they got out of him.”
Josh Reddick finally admits his take on Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s Dodgers contract was wrong
Alright, he didn’t apologize, but we’ll take it.
To be fair to the guy, a lot of people were skeptical about Yamamoto’s contract, even within the Dodgers fandom itself. Signing Japanese pitchers, even ones as hyped and decorated as Yamamoto, still comes with a certain amount of risk because you just don’t know how their stuff will play against major league hitters.
Yamamoto’s rookie season didn’t do all that much to silence the naysayers, but he forced everyone to admit they were wrong after his World Series performance made him the most deserving series MVP, and he was an NL Cy Young finalist without his postseason even being taken into account (and he’ll always have very tough competition for the Cy Young as long as Paul Skenes is in the league).
Reddick admitted he was wrong and the haters are quiet. Yamamoto has literally nothing left to prove anymore.