Cardlines Guide To Sensation Yoshinobu Yamamoto And His Japanese Baseball Cards

He’s the most anticipated free agent in years. He’s dominated in his home country, winning three MVP awards and three awards for the best pitcher.

He’s led his team to championships both in the NPB and the WBC. And he’s still only 25 years old.

Now Yoshinobu Yamamoto is about to arrive on the MLB scene after signing a 12-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers. His arrival is going to be a big deal. But who is Yamamoto? How is he about to land in MLB? And what cards of Yamamoto are worth chasing?

Welcome to the Cardlines guide to sensation Yoshinobu Yamato and his Japanese baseball cards.

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Who is Yoshinobu Yamamoto?

Yoshinobu Yamamoto is a starting pitcher in the Japanese Nippon Professional League (NPB) league. Since his debut in 2017 at the tender age of 18, Yamamoto has dominated the league like few others.

In his 7 seasons in Japan, he had a record of 75-30 an impressive winning percentage of .714, and an ERA of 1.72. In 2023, he put up a record of 17-6 with a 1.16 ERA, video game numbers by any standard.

Yamamoto is a three-time winner of the Eiji Sawamura Award, the NPB equivalent of the MVP award. He is also the only pitcher in league history to win three straight pitching Triple Crown awards.

He’s led his team to a Japanese championship and led Japan to a World Baseball Championship win in 2023.

The 5-foot-10-inch, 180-pound right-handed starter has accomplished all this despite being only 25 years old. He throws from a three-quarters arm slot and hurls a fastball that averages 95 mph and tops out at 99.

He also throws a splitter, a cutter, and a curveball. Known for his command, Yamamoto is a strike thrower who should keep batters off base, limiting both hits and walks.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto: Coming to America

Yamamoto had expressed a desire to pitch in the major leagues, which led to the Orix Buffaloes, his Japanese team, posting him on November 20, 2023. That opened a window of 45 days in which Yamamoto and his representatives can negotiate with all major league teams on a contract.

On December 22nd, Yamamoto agreed to a 12 year deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers worth $325. He will join fellow Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani, who also signed a deal with the Dodgers earlier this offseason.

Once the contract is signed, the signing team will also pay a posting fee to the Buffaloes.

Yamamoto has all the tools to be a very successful pitcher in MLB. He also has had success in International competition to back up those tools. Baseball analysts expect Yamamoto to sign a contract worth north of $200 million in total.

Now that Yamamoto has a new team and a big contract, MLB will have a new 25-year-old pitching sensation sure to draw attention on both sides of the Pacific. The fact that he comes to the LA Dodgers with Ohtani only enhances the crazy amount of hype that will be surrounding baseball and these players.

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Japanese Yoshinobu Yamamoto Baseball Cards

In addition to being probably the most accomplished international pitcher ever to come to the big leagues, Yoshinobu may have more cards than any other recent “rookie”.

By the time 2024 rolls around, Yoshinobu will have appeared on over 800 cards (TCDB.com has him at 796 as of this writing). While a handful of these were produced by US brands, the vast majority are produced in his native Japan. These include producers like BBM, Epoch, and Calbee.

The bad news is that means that this article won’t be an exhaustive ranking of all 796 Yoshinobu cards. The good news is that there is a Yoshinobu early card for just about any taste and budget. Below are a few that may be of interest.

2023 Topps World Baseball Classic Stars Yoshinobu Yamamoto #WBC-56

Part of the 2023 Topps World Baseball Classic Global Stars set, which captures the action from the 2023 World Baseball Classic. The PSA population is quite small, and the lone PSA 10 recently sold for $75.

The product remains reasonably priced, so I suspect we’ll see more in the grading pipeline soon. A nice, reasonably priced card celebrating Yamamoto leading Japan to the WBC championship along with Shohei Ohtani.

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2022 Bowman NPB Nippon Professional Baseball #9 Yoshinobu Yamamoto

A familiar brand for American collectors, the Bowman NPB set gives us a card of Yamamoto with the Bowman design and all the goodness that comes with Bowman releases.

This is another card with a very low PSA population. PSA 10s have sold in the $140-170 range, not an unreasonable price for an early card of such an exciting player.

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2022 BBM 1st Version Yoshinobu Yamamoto Silver Foil #167

The 2022 BBM 1^st Version card is included here as a representative of 2020s Japanese cards of Yamamoto. Generally, they’re nice-looking cards, have a very low PSA population, but even in PSA 10 slabs aren’t out of reach, price-wise.

There are dozens if not hundreds of Yamamoto cards that fall into this category, many worth chasing. Just educate yourself on what you’re buying so you don’t pay more than you should.

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2017 BBM Rookie Edition Yoshinobu Yamamoto #51

Yamamoto made his NPB in 2017 at the tender age of 18. The BBM Rookie Edition is not the most expensive Yamamoto rookie card, but it’s still a great card and easier to acquire than the top Yamamoto rookie cards.

The PSA population is low enough to be a challenge, but not so low as to be unattainable. In a PSA 10 slab, recent comps have been in the $350 to $400 range.

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2017 BBM Yoshinobu Yamamoto #157

The top Yamamota rookie card is the 2017 BBM release. PSA has graded just north of 70 copies, with 40 in PSA 10 slabs. Recent comps for PSA 10’s have been around $900.

That’s likely to increase when Yamamoto signs, and if he does well in his first season, there’s even more potential upside despite the buy-in being already pretty high.

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Yoshinobu Yamamoto baseball cards

Check out the summary below of investing in Yoshinobu Yamamoto baseball cards and which cards collectors have been flocking to:

Investment in Yoshinobu Yamamoto baseball cards

Yoshinobu Yamamoto is already a popular and established superstar in Japan. He’s about to continue his amazing career in the US, on an even larger stage with an even larger potential audience.

If Yamamoto can become a top pitcher in the US, his Japanese cards should provide some interesting and valuable collectibles. For comparison, look at Ichiro Suzuki’s Japanese cards.

Of course, investing in any player debuting in the big leagues is a risk, and Japanese imports are no different. Yamamoto has age on his side, which helps the equation, but he’s also a pitcher. Pitchers have an inherent injury risk.

Final thoughts on Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s early Japanese cards

Yoshinobu Yamamoto is the most exciting player to come out of Japan in 20 years. His combination of youth, dominant play in the NPB, and the amount of cardboard he has available at a young age means his cards will be very in demand.

The good news is that there are plenty of options for all collecting styles and budgets. This will continue in the future, with Yamamoto’s US rookie cards hitting sometime in 2024.

How will Yamamoto signing with Los Angeles impact card prices? Think he’ll have a big year in 2024? And what’s your favorite Yamamoto rookie card? Let us know at card_lines on Twitter.

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