The New York Yankees have not dipped their hand in the free agent market yet, and some big names have already been taken off the board.
Of the big leaguers remaining on the open market, Kyle Tucker, Bo Bichette and Cody Bellinger may be the best fits for the Yankees. The Yankees have expressed interest in bringing Bellinger back, but some international free agents have been posted. Munetaka Murakami, Kazuma Okamoto and Tatsuya Imai are the three Nippon Professional Baseball players trying to make the jump to Major League Baseball.
All three could help the Yankees, but according to Latino Sports’ Hector Beauchamp, the Yankees may not be “in play” to sign any of them.
“After talking with a few Japanese media members the feeling I got from them is the Yankees are not in play on any of the Japanese players coming over to the states,” wrote Beauchamp on X on Thursday. “But anything can change over the next few weeks before the signing deadline.”
Imai is coming off a stellar season. He had a 1.92 ERA last season and could be one of the best pitchers available this winter. Okamoto and Murakami are both great power hitters and could be options at first or third base for teams this winter.
The Yankees could look to add a first baseman and make Ben Rice the regular catcher. However, there have been no indications or reports suggesting the Yankees are interested in replacing Austin Wells as the starting catcher in favor of Rice.
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