Yoshinobu Yamamoto DVOA, Advanced Stats, & Fantasy Rankings

Dodgers starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto looked dominant in five strong innings in his first start of the season, helping the Dodgers secure the 4-1 victory in the first game of the Tokyo Series. Yamamoto allowed three hits, one walk, and one earned run in five innings while picking up four strikeouts. He had the whole arsenal working against the Cubs, and his splitter was especially effective, drawing a 47% whiff rate. He threw the pitch a couple of miles per hour harder than he did last year, which seemed to make it even more effective. His great start to 2025 is a sharp contrast to his 2024 outing in South Korea when he allowed five runs in just one inning in his MLB debut. Yamamoto's next start will likely be in the Dodgers' series against the Tigers on March 27 through March 29, when the team starts the stateside portion of their regular season schedule.

The Los Angeles Dodgers officially announced on Tuesday that right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto will start the first game of the 2025 regular season on March 18 against the Chicago Cubs in Tokyo, Japan. It was always expected that Yamamoto would start the first game in his native Japan, and now it's official. The 26-year-old second-year hurler allowed just a run on four hits while walking one and striking out seven in five innings in his final Cactus League start on Monday. In his three spring starts, he went eight innings and gave up five earned runs while walking two and striking out seven. For DFS purposes, the Cubs aren't the best season-opening matchup, but most fantasy managers that take Yamamoto as a low-end fantasy ace/high-end No. 2 will be throwing him out there to kick things off given his strikeout upside.

The Athletic's Fabian Ardaya reports that Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto will make the start in the team's Cactus League opener on Thursday versus the Chicago Cubs. Yamamoto is also expected to start L.A.'s regular-season opener in Tokyo, Japan, against the same Cubs on March 18 and be opposed by fellow countryman Shota Imanaga. A six-man starting rotation for the Dodgers to begin the year will lower Yamamoto's fantasy ceiling a bit, but he should still be considered a low-end fantasy ace/high-end No. 2 starter after a promising first year in the States in 2024 that saw him go 7-2 with a 3.00 ERA, 1.11 WHIP and 105 strikeouts over 90 innings pitch (18 starts). The 26-year-old did miss time with a rotator-cuff strain, and questions about his durability is probably the biggest knock on his fantasy profile.