ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the L.A. Rams for ESPN from 2016 to 2018 and the L.A. Angels for MLB.com from 2012 to 2016.
Perhaps nobody in the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ front office watched Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitch in Japan more often than Galen Carr, the longtime scout who now serves as vice president of player personnel.
Last summer, at an Orix Buffaloes road game north of Tokyo, Carr watched Yamamoto unleash a pitch that took even him by surprise: A mid-90s fastball with arm-side run and sink, a two-seamer — or a sinker, or a shuuto, depending on who you ask — that sharply deviated from the hellacious four-pitch mix that had made him one of Major League Baseball’s most coveted pitchers.
“It was like, ‘Wow,'” Carr recalled. “He didn’t pull that one out of his bag very often.”
Since signing Yamamoto to a 12-year, $325 million deal in December, the largest contract ever given to a starting pitcher, the Dodgers have watched him make an assortment of monumental transitions — to a new ball, a new mound, a new country, a new league and now, basically, a new repertoire.
Yamamoto is still in the second full month of his major league career, and yet he has already evolved into a different pitcher, his pitch mix increasing from four to six.
The four-seam fastball, the rainbow curve and the darting splitter continue to be his bread and butter. The cutter remains an intermittent weapon. Over his past four starts, though, Yamamoto has also unveiled a two-seamer and a slider against right-handed hitters. It’s yet another dynamic for the 25-year-old right-hander whose early numbers — 5-2 with a 3.51 ERA and a 5.31 strikeout-to-walk ratio despite an ugly major league debut — are beginning to justify the hype he carried with him from Japan.
“[He’s] more than just a rookie,” Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “This is a guy who’s never been in the United States. He’s learning the language, he’s learning Major League Baseball, he feels like every time he goes out everyone expects him to throw a complete-game shutout. There’s a lot on him. For him to go out there and do what he’s been doing these first two months, I think it’s special.”
Yamamoto occasionally flashed the two-seamer and slider in Japan, but as Dodgers assistant pitching coach Connor McGuiness noted, “he honestly just didn’t need it.” Yamamoto won three consecutive Pacific League MVPs from 2021 to 2023, during which he posted a 1.42 ERA in 557 2/3 innings and mostly survived on three pitches.
The Dodgers’ initial focus was on making his transition as smooth as possible, which meant placing him on something close to the once-a-week schedule he was accustomed to in Japan and keeping his repertoire tight. Any tinkering would wait.
“When he first came over to us, a big point of emphasis was just making sure he was comfortable — getting used to the American ball, getting used to our catchers, just kind of how we go about things, the different talent level of lineups that he’s facing,” McGuiness said. “So he was really showcasing the main three early on. And the more and more we got to know him and he started to feel much more comfortable with his delivery, it just opened him up to really showcase his talent and skills to be able to do different things.”
Yamamoto allowed five runs and recorded only three outs during his major league debut in South Korea on March 21. He recovered admirably, posting a 1.64 ERA over his next six starts, but an ominous trend began to emerge: Right-handed hitters were faring well against him, slashing .281/.311/.491 through May 1. Against his fastball and curveball, those numbers jumped to .350/.357/.650.
Yamamoto had the splitter and, to a lesser extent, the cutter as put-away pitches against lefties. But he needed more options against righties. The two-seamer could bust them in on their hands; the slider could tail away and make them chase. In recent starts, both pitches have been consistent weapons. Yamamoto barely used them while facing a lefty-loaded Cincinnati Reds lineup on Sunday, but he threw a combined 25 two-seamers and 20 sliders in starts against the Miami Marlins, San Francisco Giants and Arizona Diamondbacks from May 7 to May 20, the vast majority to right-handed hitters.
They went a combined 2-for-13 with four strikeouts against those pitches. In that stretch, their overall slash line against Yamamoto went down to .233/.250/.442.
“He’s always had all of these pitches,” McGuiness said. “It was just a function of once his delivery is in a good spot to really showcase them in a game.”
The slider — thrown in the mid-80s, about six ticks slower than his cutter but with significantly more depth — first made an appearance against the D-backs on May 1. Yamamoto threw three of them, one of which badly fooled Christian Walker for a strikeout. When the D-backs saw him again on May 20, Yamamoto unleashed 11 two-seamers and 10 sliders, both season highs. Three of those sliders drew strikeouts, including one to the left-handed-hitting Joc Pederson.
“There’s tremendous aptitude there, and he’s got a great feel for the baseball,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. “I think it’s just the awareness and the creativity that he has. And he’s probably trusting some coaching. He saw that there was a need to change shapes with a couple of his pitches and has transitioned really well. The fact he’s been able to do it as fast as he has is impressive, but not surprising.”
Dodgers hitters were blown away early in spring training by Yamamoto’s stuff and command. A handful of starts into his major league career, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts saw a pitcher who “got tired of being mediocre” and honed in on the details of his mechanics because of it. Easing into his major league career, Roberts said, “wasn’t good enough for him.” Effectively incorporating two additional pitches so soon is a perfect example.
Yamamoto had been throwing two-seam fastballs in bullpen sessions since the early part of spring training but waited until the mechanics of his delivery were sound before unleashing the slider, a pitch historically troublesome on elbows. The shapes of those pitches are ever-evolving, as is Yamamoto’s transition to the big leagues. He has continually worked on not leaking his four-seam fastball out over the plate, an issue that has led to a 48.5% hard-hit rate. Over time, McGuiness said, he’s “learning what a good miss means” and how it can enhance his sequencing.
He still has a lot to learn, but he’s doing it quickly.
“As we got to know him, that’s something that really stood out — his aptitude, his thoughtfulness, the questions he asked,” Carr said. “You could tell he was a real student. I mean, there’s so much intent with every throw that he makes. When he’s playing long toss and you watch him, he’s focused and intentional on every single throw he makes. So if those are your building blocks and you combine that with superior coordination, athleticism — it’s pretty exciting to feel like you can probably ask him to make some adjustments and he’s going to be OK.”
ESPN baseball reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024.
NEW YORK — Giancarlo Stanton, one of the first known adopters of the torpedo bat, declined Tuesday to say whether he believes using it last season caused the tendon ailments in both elbows that forced him to begin this season on the injured list.
Last month, Stanton alluded to “bat adjustments” he made last season as a possible reason for the epicondylitis, commonly known as tennis elbow, he’s dealing with.
“You’re not going to get the story you’re looking for,” Stanton said. “So, if that’s what you guys want, that ain’t going to happen.”
Stanton said he will continue using the torpedo bat when he returns from injury. The 35-year-old New York Yankees slugger, who has undergone multiple rounds of platelet-rich plasma injections to treat his elbows, shared during spring training that season-ending surgery on both elbows was a possibility. But he has progressed enough to recently begin hitting off a Trajekt — a pitching robot that simulates any pitcher’s windup, arm angle and arsenal. However, he still wouldn’t define his return as “close.”
He said he will first have to go on a minor league rehab assignment at an unknown date for an unknown period. It won’t start in the next week, he added.
“This is very unique,” Stanton said. “I definitely haven’t missed a full spring before. So, it just depends on my timing, really, how fast I get to feel comfortable in the box versus live pitching.”
While the craze of the torpedo bat (also known as the bowling pin bat) has swept the baseball world since it was revealed Saturday — while the Yankees were blasting nine home runs against the Milwaukee Brewers — that a few members of the Yankees were using one, the modified bat already had quietly spread throughout the majors in 2024. Both Stanton and former Yankees catcher Jose Trevino, now with the Cincinnati Reds, were among players who used the bats last season after being introduced to the concept by Aaron Leanhardt, an MIT-educated physicist and former minor league hitting coordinator for the organization.
Stanton explained he has changed bats before. He said he has usually adjusted the length. Sometimes, he opts for lighter bats at the end of the long season. In the past, when knuckleballers were more common in the majors, he’d opt for heavier lumber.
Last year, he said he simply chose his usual bat but with a different barrel after experimenting with a few models.
“I mean, it makes a lot of sense,” Stanton said. “But it’s, like, why hasn’t anyone thought of it in 100-plus years? So, it’s explained simply and then you try it and as long as it’s comfortable in your hands [it works]. We’re creatures of habit, so the bat’s got to feel kind of like a glove or an extension of your arm.”
Stanton went on to lead the majors with an average bat velocity of 81.2 mph — nearly 3 mph ahead of the competition. He had a rebound, but not spectacular, regular season in which he batted .233 with 27 home runs and a .773 OPS before clubbing seven home runs in 14 playoff games.
“It’s not like [it was] unreal all of a sudden for me,” Stanton said.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone described the torpedo bats “as the evolution of equipment” comparable to getting fitted for new golf clubs. He said the organization is not pushing players to use them and insisted the science is more complicated than just picking a bat with a different barrel.
“There’s a lot more to it than, ‘I’ll take the torpedo bat on the shelf over there — 34 [inches], 32 [ounces],'” Boone said. “Our guys are way more invested in it than that. And really personalized, really work with our players in creating this stuff. But it’s equipment evolving.”
As players around the majors order torpedo bats in droves after the Yankees’ barrage over the weekend — they clubbed a record-tying 13 homers in two games against the Brewers — Boone alluded to the notion that, though everyone is aware of the concept, not every organization can optimize its usage.
“You’re trying to just, where you can on the margins, move the needle a little bit,” Boone said. “And that’s really all you’re going to do. I don’t think this is some revelation to where we’re going to be; it’s not related to the weekend that we had, for example. Like, I don’t think it’s that. Maybe in some cases, for some players, it may help them incrementally. That’s how I view it.”
Eovaldi struck out eight and walked none in his fifth career complete game. The right-hander threw 99 pitches, 70 for strikes.
It was Eovaldi’s first shutout since April 29, 2023, against the Yankees and just the third of his career. He became the first Ranger with multiple career shutouts with no walks in the past 30 seasons, according to ESPN Research.
“I feel like, by the fifth or sixth inning, that my pitch count was down, and I feel like we had a really good game plan going into it,” Eovaldi said in his on-field postgame interview on Victory+. “I thought [Texas catcher Kyle Higashioka] called a great game. We were on the same page throughout the entire game.”
In the first inning, Wyatt Langford homered for Texas against Carson Spiers (0-1), and that proved to be all Eovaldi needed. A day after Cincinnati collected 14 hits in a 14-3 victory in the series opener, Eovaldi (1-0) silenced the lineup.
“We needed it, these bats are still quiet,” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said of his starter’s outing. “It took a well-pitched game like that. What a game.”
The Reds put the tying run on second with two out in the ninth, but Eovaldi retired Elly De La Cruz on a grounder to first.
“He’s as good as I have seen as far as a pitcher performing under pressure,” Bochy said. “He is so good. He’s a pro out there. He wants to be out there.”
Eovaldi retired his first 12 batters, including five straight strikeouts during one stretch. Gavin Lux hit a leadoff single in the fifth for Cincinnati’s first baserunner.
“I think it was the first-pitch strikes,” Eovaldi said, when asked what made him so efficient. “But also, the off-speed pitches. I was able to get some quick outs, and I didn’t really have many deep counts. … And not walking guys helps.”
Spiers gave up three hits in six innings in his season debut. He struck out five and walked two for the Reds, who fell to 2-3.
The Rangers moved to 4-2, and Langford has been at the center of it all. He now has two home runs in six games to begin the season. In 2024, it took him until the 29th game of the season to homer for the first time. Langford hit 16 homers in 134 games last season during his rookie year.
Eli Lederman covers college football and recruiting for ESPN.com. He joined ESPN in 2024 after covering the University of Oklahoma for Sellout Crowd and the Tulsa World.
USC secured the commitment of former Oregon defensive tackle pledge Tomuhini Topui on Tuesday, a source told ESPN, handing the Trojans their latest recruiting victory in the 2026 cycle over the Big Ten rival Ducks.
Topui, ESPN’s No. 3 defensive tackle and No. 72 overall recruit in the 2026 class, spent five and half months committed to Oregon before pulling his pledge from the program on March 27. Topui attended USC’s initial spring camp practice that afternoon, and seven days later the 6-foot-4, 295-pound defender gave the Trojans his pledge to become the sixth ESPN 300 defender in the program’s 2026 class.
Topui’s commitment gives USC its 10th ESPN 300 pledge this cycle — more than any other program nationally — and pulls a fourth top-100 recruit into the impressive defensive class the Trojans are building this spring. Alongside Topui, USC’s defensive class includes in-state cornerbacks R.J. Sermons (No. 26 in ESPN Junior 300) and Brandon Lockhart (No. 77); four-star outside linebacker Xavier Griffin (No. 27) out of Gainesville, Georgia; and two more defensive line pledges between Jaimeon Winfield (No. 143) and Simote Katoanga (No. 174).
The Trojans are working to reestablish their local recruiting presence in the 2026 class under newly hired general manager Chad Bowden. Topui not only gives the Trojans their 11th in-state commit in the cycle, but his pledge represents a potentially important step toward revamping the program’s pipeline to perennial local powerhouse Mater Dei High School, too.
Topui will enter his senior season this fall at Mater Dei, the program that has produced a long line of USC stars including Matt Leinart, Matt Barkley and Amon-Ra St. Brown. However, if Topui ultimately signs with the program later this year, he’ll mark the Trojans’ first Mater Dei signee since the 2022 cycle, when USC pulled three top-300 prospects — Domani Jackson, Raleek Brown and C.J. Williams — from the high school program based in Santa Ana, California.
Topui’s flip to the Trojans also adds another layer to a recruiting rivalry rekindling between USC and Oregon in the 2026 cycle.
Tuesday’s commitment comes less than two months after coach Lincoln Riley and the Trojans flipped four-star Oregon quarterback pledge Jonas Williams, ESPN’s No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in 2026. USC is expected to continue targeting several Ducks commits this spring, including four-star offensive tackle Kodi Greene, another top prospect out of Mater Dei.