Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s Cy Young Aspirations in Danger? Pitch Tipping Concerns Emerge Amidst Spring Training

While Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s debut was the stuff of dreams, there was one tiny tense situation that rose from it. The center-field camera caught the most valuable pitcher’s highly fearsome split-fingered fastball. While in a one-off that isn’t an issue, it could impact Yamamoto’s pitching future in the major league if it becomes a regular occurrence.

The league has been a lot stricter regarding sign stealing since the Houston Astros’ 2017 controversy, but reading grips is still a prevalent part of baseball. While doing it in real-time is banned, one can do it after the game. As a result, there’s a risk of Yamamoto’s effectiveness reducing if more teams catch up on this fact. While it’s a tense situation, surprisingly Yamamoto isn’t much concerned about it.

“It’s not really a big concern for me,” Yamamoto said via his interpreter, Yoshihiro Sonodo, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. “As it gets closer to the season, I’ll talk to the coaches and fix it. It was the same in Japan. When the season starts, I’ll make those adjustments,” the Dodgers star seemed relaxed. But the Blue Crew’s pitching coach looked a little worried.

“It’s something I think from [Yamamoto’s] perspective that he is going to learn,” said Mark Prior. The coach then noted that while he thinks that pitch tipping isn’t prevalent in Japan, it’s quite common in the US. “Everybody’s aware of it and, look, it’s part of the game,” Prior shared. The coach’s serious demeanor indicates that the Dodgers are trying to get Yamamoto fully accustomed to the playing practices of MLB.

With a $325 million contract, expectations with Yamamoto have sky-rocketed. So could pitch tipping affect his Cy Young aspirations? Possibly, but then there are other factors at play here as well.

Read more: Why Yoshinobu Yamamoto Snubbed the Phillies, Left Money on the Table to Achieve His Dodgers Dream

Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s road towards Cy Young remains unclear 

Yamamoto has a lot of adjustments to make this season. The Japanese man’s lifestyle has changed, and so has his surroundings. In a new league and country, Yamamoto’s transition as of now is quite good. However, the hard part has just started as pitch tipping could prove to be Yamamoto’s first major challenge in the US.

As the coach said, “There’s different variations of tipping. Sometimes it’s a glove…it’s tempo. Sometimes it’s a guy sticking his tongue out,” so Yamamoto needs to learn quickly. If his trademark pitches get studied, things could get ugly for the pitcher really soon. But then again, Yamamoto possesses a vast number of pitches that could prove to be a boon for the pitcher.

So as of now, the coaching staff is quite serious about ensuring that Yamamoto doesn’t repeat the same mistake twice. While a Cy Young prediction is quite difficult at this stage, Yamamoto’s MLB career is nonetheless off to a dream start.

Read more: Dodgers Already Striking Gold in Japan After $1 Billion Splash on Shohei Ohtani & Yoshinobu Yamamoto