New York tabloids in peak form after Mets, Yankees miss on Yoshinobu Yamamoto
There were two big winners in the Yoshinobu Yamamoto sweepstakes on Thursday night. The obvious one is the Los Angeles Dodgers, who landed the prized pitcher from Japan on a 12-year, $325M contract.
The second and less obvious winner is the New York City tabloid headline writers who were having an absolute field day with the fact both the New York Mets and New York Yankees failed to sign the pitcher.
The Daily News chose a holiday-themed approach and went with "It's A Miserable Life," emphasizing how big of a loss it is for the local teams to not get the pitcher.
The Post decided that "Yamoohno!" was the correct approach, going with a play on Yamamoto's name.
Newsday was a little more tactful approach and simply went with "Hollywood Co-star" given Yamamoto's decision to team up with fellow free agent signing Shohei Ohtani.
Both the Yankees and Mets were trying to sign Yamamoto in the hopes he could lead each of their pitching staffs and be the focal point of their offseason. The Yankees reportedly offered $300M, while Yamamoto had dinner at the home of Mets owner Steve Cohen last week. In the end, none of that was enough to top the Dodger's offer.
The good news for the Yankees is that their offseason is not a total loss. They still landed one of the biggest prizes in the offseason by acquiring superstar outfielder Juan Soto from the San Diego Padres, while also landing outfielder Alex Verdugo from the Boston Red Sox. They at least addressed some of their biggest needs and improved their lineup around Aaron Judge significantly.
It is a very different story for the Mets, however. After being one of the biggest disappointments in the league a year ago, the Mets still have some glaring holes on their pitching staff and were hoping to land a front-line starter to replace all of the starters they lost over the past year (Jacob DeGrom, Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer). Yamamoto was supposed to be that front-line starter.
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