Cody Snavely
ATLANTA—Prior to tonight’s game against the Atlanta Braves, Major League Baseball announced its annual Player of the Month Awards, which included Los Angeles Dodgers Japanese right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto taking the honors for the National League in April.
It has been a terrific start to the 2025 season for Yamamoto, who has seemingly taken a massive step forward in his career. After finishing with a 3.00 ERA and helping the Dodgers win the 2024 World Series, Yamamoto has made his mark as arguably the best pitcher in the National League this season.
Overall, the righty is 3-2 in seven starts with a league-leading 1.06 ERA, 1.000 WHIP, 11.4 K/9, in thirty-four innings pitched while also holding hitters to just a .190/.258/.289 slash line and .547 OPS.
Yamamoto has also been devastating against left-handed batters, with opposing southpaws hitting .150 on the season and striking out twenty-two times.
Regarding National League rankings Yamamoto is:
- 5th in K/9 (11.38)
- 4th in K% (32.6)
- 4th in AVG (.190)
- 3rd in FIP (2.27)
- 2nd in SIERA (2.50)
Yamamoto has also seen an increase in multiple metrics across the board, including ranking in the 99th percentile in Pitching Run Value, 98th in Fastball Run Value, 99th in Off-speed Run Value, and 92nd in K% this season.
All of this success has skyrocketed Yamamoto’s chances of winning the National League Cy Young Award, a feat that has never been done by a Japanese-born pitcher in Major League Baseball history.
This is something that intrigues Yamamoto after being asked about the award by Dylan Hernández of the Los Angeles Times in mid-April.
“I’ve heard no Japanese pitcher has won it yet, so I’m awfully interested in it,” Yamamoto said in Japanese. “I think that concentrating on each and every game and performing at my best is what will lead to a wonderful award like that, so I’d like to do my best every day.”
For now, Yamamoto will have to settle for his first of hopefully multiple accolades this season before he toes the mound tonight looking to continue his great April into the month of May.
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