On paper, all 30 teams had a shot at Yoshinobu Yamamoto. On paper, I also had a shot at dunking on LeBron. Technically true, completely useless.
When he came over from Japan, the Dodgers landed him for 12 years and $325 million, plus a posting fee of just over $50 million to his old team, Orix. The teams reported to be in the final hours were the Yankees and the Mets. SNY reported the Mets matched the $325 million and the Yankees offered $300 million. That was the whole race. A bidding war between the biggest checkbooks in the sport.
I’m a Royals fan, so let me be the honest one in the room. Kansas City was never in that conversation. Neither were the Guardians, the Marlins, the White Sox, the Nationals or the Rays, who all opened 2026 with payrolls under $90 million. The Dodgers opened this year at about $322 million, second highest in baseball. The Royals sit 18th at roughly $141 million, which makes them a middle-of-the-pack team that still couldn’t have written Yamamoto’s check without gutting the rest of the roster. A team at the bottom doesn’t even bother pretending.
Now the counterexample, because it’s a good one. Roki Sasaki came over in early 2025 under the international bonus pool rules, which cap what every team can offer a player under 25. His signing bonus was reportedly $6.5 million, and every club had roughly the same amount to spend. He still picked the Dodgers, over finalists Toronto and San Diego. So it isn’t only about money. Winning and a lineup that already had Shohei Ohtani and Yamamoto in it tilt the table too. Money buys the stars, and the stars buy the wins that attract the next star.
Let me be clear about what I’m not saying. I have no problem with the Dodgers being rich. They earned that audience, they sell that many tickets, and they can pay whoever they want. The $169 million luxury tax bill didn’t slow them down last year, and the Dodgers won the World Series with Yamamoto as MVP. My complaint is with the league. A sport that sells itself as a fair competition has about half its teams locked out of the biggest free agent auctions before the bidding starts.
That’s why the labor fight matters more than the usual owners-versus-players noise. The current agreement runs out December 1, and the owners put a hard cap with an escrow component on the table in the spring. The players’ union says it would have cut player pay by more than $500 million this year, and a lockout is widely expected if there’s no deal. I wrote about why the owners might have a point on the numbers, and nothing about Yamamoto’s free agency changed my mind.
I’m not sold on a hard cap as written, since it comes with a pay cut attached. But “the system is fine” can’t be the players’ answer either. Something has to give a team like the Royals a real seat at the table, because fans in Kansas City buy the same hope as fans in Los Angeles, and right now only one of those fan bases gets to see it spent.
My two cents: a league where half the teams can’t bid on the stars isn’t a competition, it’s a talent farm with a trophy ceremony.
Photo by Orixbaseballclub via Openverse, licensed CC BY-SA.