Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto is expected to be at the top of the pitching free agent market this offseason, and ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan explained why he is likely to get over $200 million.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto awaits his official posting, which is expected to happen this week, according to Passan. Yamamoto is 25 years old, one of the best pitchers to come out of Japan, and teams' evaluators and computer models love him, according to Passan. With that type of player, it usually starts at $200 million and works up.

Yamamoto is not expected to surpass the eight-year, $324 million contract that Gerrit Cole signed with the New York Yankees in the winter of 2019, but it could be in the range of Stephen Strasburg's seven-year, $245 million deal that he signed in that same winter.

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The Yankees, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers are the main teams that are expected to be involved, with the San Francisco Giants and the Toronto Blue Jays also in play, according to Passan.

All of those teams are from big markets, so when you get all of them bidding on one player who is expected to get a big deal in the first place, that is a recipe for a big contract. Passan indicated that the difference maker could be which team is willing to offer a big money contract with an opt-out clause so he can leverage his age and get another big deal.

Fans of the Yankees, Mets, Cubs, Dodgers and more are begging their teams to sign Yamamoto. It will be interesting to see where he lands this offseason.