Originally published by DodgerBlue.com
When the Los Angeles Dodgers signed Yoshinobu Yamamoto to a 10-year, $325 million contract prior to the 2024 season, it expressed their belief he would become one of the top pitchers in MLB after his dominant stretch in Nippon Professional Baseball.
The contract made Yamamoto the highest-paid pitcher in MLB history despite never throwing a pitch at the Major League level. Yamamoto went on to have a strong rookie season, posting a 3.00 ERA across 90 innings while also being limited by a shoulder injury.
After a strong postseason, helping lead the Dodgers to the 2024 World Series championship, the expectations for Yamamoto increased.
In 2025, Yamamoto has been everything the Dodgers have envisioned, looking nearly unhittable on a nightly basis and dominating in a way that hasn’t been seen before in MLB.
After his start against the Texas rangers, Yamamoto became the first pitcher in the modern era (since 1901) to post 35 or more strikeouts, a 5.00 or better strikeout to walk ration, fewer than 20 hits allowed and fewer than five runs allowed over his first five starts of a season, according to Opta STATS.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the @Dodgers is the only MLB pitcher in the modern era to have:
35+ strikeouts
5.00+ K/BB ratio
fewer than 20 hits allowed
fewer than 5 runs allowed…over his first 5 starts of a season. pic.twitter.com/sfGJelmx6Z
— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) April 19, 2025
Yamamoto tossed seven innings against the Rangers without allowing a run to reach the accomplishment. He also struck out 10 hitters while walking none and giving up just five hits.
The 26-year-old has gone five innings or more with two runs or fewer in each of his five starts this year. He has also gone at least six innings in three consecutive starts, allowing just one run in that stretch, which came on April 4.
Overall this season, Yamamoto has pitched to a microscopic 0.93 ERA while posting a strikeout-to-walk rate of 5.43 by striking out 11.79 hitters per nine and walking just 2.17.
He has only allowed four runs in his 29 innings pitched with just 18 hits allowed, seven walks and racking up 38 strikeouts.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto making early Cy Young case
Yamamoto was already one of the pitchers favored to win the 2025 National League Cy Young Award, and with his historic start to the season, he should be considered the favorite overall.
It is hard to make a case there’s any pitcher better in MLB than Yamamoto, and while anything can happen with more than five months left in the season, it’s hard to envision him failing enough to knock himself out of the race.
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