New Los Angeles Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto isn't among the MLB players with a negative perception of San Francisco.
Following Yamamoto's introductory Dodgers press conference on Wednesday, his agent Joel Wolfe -- who also represents Brandon Crawford -- spoke to reporters after the Giants' pursuit of the prized Japanese pitcher [h/t The Los Angeles Times' Dylan Hernandez].
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Yamamoto's feelings about San Francisco come in the wake of former Giants catcher Buster Posey hinting at the city's reputation hurting the team as they try to sign marquee free agents.
While Yamamoto liked San Francisco, he ultimately signed a 12-year, $325 million contract with the Dodgers, the largest deal for a pitcher in MLB history.
Posey's comments came after the Giants missed out on Shohei Ohtani, who also signed with the Dodgers, despite San Francisco offering a nearly identical 10-year, $700 million contract containing mostly deferred money.
“Something I think is noteworthy, something that unfortunately keeps popping up from players and even the players’ wives is there’s a bit of an uneasiness with the city itself, as far as the state of the city, with crime, with drugs,” Posey told The Athletic's Andrew Baggarly on Dec. 12. “Whether that’s all completely fair or not, perception is reality. It’s a frustrating cycle, I think, and not just with baseball. Baseball is secondary to life and the important things in life. But as far as a free-agent pursuit goes, I have seen that it does affect things.”
San Francisco Giants
Since Posey's comments, several prominent figures, including new Giants manager Bob Melvin, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr and MLB agent Scott Boras have refuted the premise that San Francisco is an undesirable destination.
“Forever, players have wanted to come to San Francisco,” Melvin said to The Athletic's Tim Kawakami. “It’s a great, great city. I think big cities are having the same types of problems. And at the end of the day, we want guys that want to be here. So, we can’t really affect how people feel about (the city).
“The more guys that end up coming here and we have success, the more guys that are going to want to be here. That’s the way I look at it.”
Kerr, who has called the Bay Area home for the last 10 seasons as coach of the Warriors, acknowledged that the significant others of his players have expressed the opposite viewpoint of what Posey described.
"It's an interesting dynamic," Kerr said on 95.7 The Game's "Willard and Dibs" show on Dec. 15. "What I've found, we haven't really had anybody express that, but what I have heard from players is when they arrive is their wives, significant others are surprised at what a great place it is. I've heard that multiple times, like 'Oh, this city is actually great, this is a great place to live.' Things that we know, right?
"Those of us that live here understand this is a wonderful place to live. But the reputation and some of the political fallout of everything that we experience these days in America such that San Francisco is ... you turn on 'Fox News,' it's the center of armageddon. And we certainly have our problems like every other city does, but this is an incredible place to play and an incredible place to live and our players and their significant others express that all the time.
"It's tough, it's tough on the city that we have to deal with his reputation, but again, to me, it's more just political B.S. than reality."
Boras, who just helped 25-year-old Korean outfielder Jung Hoo Lee sign a six-year, $113 million contract with the Giants earlier in December, deemed the criticism San Francisco receives as "unfair."
“Players talk about whether ownership is willing to spend to win,” Boras told the San Francisco Chronicle's John Shea after Lee's introductory press conference. “Will they pay me my value? What do they have in the minor leagues that will make them a consistent winner? They’re focused on baseball. There are issues including homelessness near the ballpark in San Diego, in downtown L.A.
“To identify that only with San Francisco is really unfair. In any of the major cities, we’ve got issues. Chicago, New York, wherever. The players’ major focus is the structure of the organization and winning and competing. The biggest issue the Giants have is the fact that the Dodgers are getting better. Players want to know if they come here, will they be able to compete with the Dodgers? And now Arizona. That’s the real major question that San Francisco has to answer.”
The Giants lost out to the Dodgers on Yamamato, but it's clear by Wolfe's comments that the pitcher's decision had nothing to do with any possible apprehension about coming to San Francisco.