25-year-old Japanese pitching phenom Yoshinobu Yamamoto has been given permission by the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) club to try his luck in the big leagues via the player posting system.

While every MLB club would love to have a player such as Yoshinobu Yamamoto, MLB Insider Bob Nightengale told Dodgers Nation that he thinks either the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, or New York Mets will win the right to sign Yamamoto to a contract:

Said Nightengale on Yoshinobu Yamamoto, “I certainly think [Yamamoto's contract] will pass $200 million. I think he'll be the highest free agent pitcher out there. I think that he'll beat Blake Snell. But yeah, everybody wants this guy. He loves the limelight. I think it's down to the Dodgers, Yankees, and Mets. I have a hard time believing it'll be anybody else.”

Yoshinobu Yamamoto went 16-6 in 23 games with a 1.21 ERA for the Buffaloes in the recently concluded season in which Orix fell short of winning the league title after losing Game 7 of the Japan Series to the Hanshin Tigers.

There is still a lot of unknown about Yoshinobu Yamamoto's future in the MLB, but the odds already have the Dodgers as the favorites to land the pitcher at +400. The New York Yankees, another perennial free agency big player, are right behind Los Angeles with odds of +500. The New York Mets, meanwhile, are labeled with +600 odds to win the Yamamoto sweepstakes. Teams within the +800 to +1400 odds range are the Chicago Cubs, Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Texas Rangers.