Sports
Hernández: Yoshinobu Yamamoto's success rooted in a willingness to change
Yoshinobu Yamamato did what?
In the underground parking lot of Kyocera Dome after a recent exhibition game, Orix Buffaloes pitching coach Masafumi Hirai chuckled when recalling how he reacted to hearing that Yamamoto reported to spring training in 2018 with a new delivery.
“I was surprised,” Hirai said in Japanese.
The previous season had been viewed as a resounding triumph for Yamamoto, who dominated Japan’s minors and was elevated to the first team before the end of the year. The 5-foot-10 right-hander started five games for the Buffaloes, including one against Shohei Ohtani, who was in his final season in Nippon Professional Baseball.
“The No. 1 pitcher I faced this year,” Ohtani said at the time.
So why was Yamamoto overhauling his delivery? What was he thinking?
“To be honest,” Hirai said, “he drastically changed after performing well the year before, so my first thought was, ‘Is this OK?’”
Hirai wasn’t alone.
The changes Yamamoto implemented were opposed by virtually everyone in the Buffaloes’ organization, from the front office to the coaching staff.
Yamamoto was only 19.
He was just a little more than a year removed from being a fourth-round draft choice.
He lacked the status and track record required to subvert authority in a country in which the orders of superiors are expected to be followed without question.
Yet he didn’t budge.
The choice to defy convention at such an early stage of his career came to define Yamamoto, who signed a $325-million contract with the Dodgers over the winter and is scheduled to start for them in the second game of their two-game series against the San Diego Padres in South Korea next week.
“He really understands what he wants to do and what his goals are, and he pursues them without wavering,” veteran Buffaloes reliever Yoshihisa Hirano said.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Orix Buffaloes pitches during a Pacific League Climax Series Final game last October in Osaka.
(Sports Nippon / Getty Images)
Yamamoto failed to win a place in the Buffaloes’ rotation in 2018 and was initially sent to the minors but later became a key contributor in the bullpen, registering a 2.89 earned-run average in 54 appearances. In time, he became the best pitcher in NPB, winning three consecutive Pacific League most valuable player awards.
“He delivered results that were good enough to make us shut up,” said Hirai, the pitching coach.
Yamamoto’s change in mechanics was inspired not only to enhance performance but also to prevent injury. He switched from a more traditional delivery to one in which he straightened his pitching arm when cocking it back, as if he was preparing to throw a javelin. By effectively transferring his weight forward, Yamamoto was able to deliver pitches in a manner that decreased the stress on his elbow.
The technique and unorthodox exercises associated with them were developed by personal trainer Osamu Yada, who was introduced to Yamamoto by a longtime acquaintance. Yada remains by Yamamoto’s side to this day.
Yada’s training program includes a javelin and miniature soccer balls but no weights.
Yamamoto and Yada made another significant modification to his delivery again last year, exchanging a leg lift for a slide step toward the plate. By this point, Yamamoto had already won two Japanese equivalents of the Cy Young Award.
“A pitcher that good, you’d think he wouldn’t want to change,” Hirai said. “It’d be a different conversation if he was struggling.
“He’s doing it because he’s in search of something better.”
The Buffaloes made no effort to deter him this time. Yamamoto won another Sawamura Award. Over the winter, he was signed by the Dodgers to the most lucrative MLB contract ever awarded to a pitcher.
“He’s never satisfied,” All-Star left-hander Hiroya Miyagi said.
What Miyagi and others found refreshing was how Yamamoto’s self-assurance on the field never translated into arrogance off of it.
“He’s serious about baseball,” Miyagi said. “Outside of that, he’s like a high schooler.”
Yamamoto liked to tease his teammates, according to Miyagi. If a player made an error, Yamamoto would joke, “You better hit.” Miyagi said he often pitched the day after Yamamoto, which would result in Yamamoto kidding him about how he better not end the Buffaloes’ winning streak.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto greets fans prior to a World Baseball Classic quarterfinal game between Italy and Japan at the Tokyo Dome last year.
(Toru Hanai / Associated Press)
Shunpeita Yamashita, a 6-foot-3 right-hander with a 100 mph fastball who could be Japan’s next great pitching export, said Yamamoto was always open to offering him advice. The 21-year-old Yamashita said he particularly appreciated how well Yamamoto communicated with the younger players on the team.
Photographs were recently posted on social media of the Buffaloes players in Dodgers shirts with their fingers forming interlocking “L.A.” symbols. The gear, it turns out, was shipped to them by Yamamoto.
Even the groundskeeper was enamored with Yamamoto, as Yosuke Iwata described him as one of the least-demanding superstars he encountered in his 19 seasons with the team.
“Some pitchers are like, ‘If the mound isn’t like this, I can’t pitch,’” Iwata said.
Yamamoto was never like that.
“He never acted big,” Iwata said. “He never changed. Even when he performed well, he didn’t change.”
Iwata said he wanted Yamamoto to succeed in the major leagues. Many players said the same. They all sounded certain he would.
After Yamamoto was hit hard in a recent spring-training game, Buffaloes players noted the high standards to which he holds himself. They pointed to his capacity for unflinching self-examination. They mentioned his unmatched feel for his own body.
In short, they vouched for his ability to change. If he could make adjustments when no one wanted him to, they reasoned, he should be able to make them now.
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A lot of history has a chance to be made when it comes to the MLB MVP awards this season.
Let’s check out the odds for the AL and NL MVP race at FanDuel Sportsbook as of July 16.
This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners. If you sign up or place a wager, FOX Sports may be compensated. Read more about Sports Betting on FOX Sports.
American League MVP
Yordan Alvarez: -165 (bet $10 to win $16.06 total)
Junior Caminero: +450 (bet $10 to win $55 total)
Bobby Witt Jr.: +500 (bet $10 to win $60 total)
Ben Rice: +1400 (bet $10 to win $150 total)
Nick Kurtz: +2000 (bet $10 to win $210 total)
Julio Rodriguez: +4500 (bet $10 to win $460 total)
Shea Langeliers: +5500 (bet $10 to win $560 total)
What to know: We’re going to have a new AL MVP. Two-time defending AL MVP Aaron Judge has not played since May due to injury. His three MVP awards are tied with a host of MLB legends for the third-most all-time, including Yankee icons Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra. However, he’ll have to wait to get his fourth, according to the current odds. The name atop the board is Houston’s Yordan Alvarez, who is leading the AL in home runs (31), hits (111), RBIs (70), on-base percentage (.426), slugging percentage (.633) and OPS (1.059). He is also second in the league in batting average (.318).
National League MVP
Shohei Ohtani: -1500 (bet $10 to win $10.67 total)
Pete Crow-Armstrong: +750 (bet $10 to win $85 total)
Kyle Schwarber: +3000 (bet $10 to win $310 total)
James Wood: +4000 (bet $10 to win $410 total)
Juan Soto: +4000 (bet $10 to win $410 total)
Corbin Carroll: +6500 (bet $10 to win $660 total)
Otto Lopez: +6500 (bet $10 to win $660 total)
What to know: It appears Ohtani is gonna do this thing again, mostly because of his combination of pitching and hitting. At the plate, he’s third in the NL in OBP (.403), third in OPS (.952), fifth in home runs (22) and fifth in slugging (.549). And on the mound, he’s 8-2 in 14 starts with a 1.79 ERA, 0.95 WHIP and 95 strikeouts. Yeesh. Last season, Ohtani won back-to-back NL MVP awards for the first time since Albert Pujols did it in 2008 and 2009. He also won the AL MVP in 2023, making him the first player in MLB history to win MVP back-to-back in each league. This year, if Ohtani is to win NL MVP, he will make a dent in Barry Bonds’ record of four straight MVP wins (2001-2004). All four of Ohtani’s MVP wins have been unanimous, with him receiving all 30 first-place votes. He has the second-most MVPs in history, trailing only Bonds’ seven.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — If something happened once, it can happen again. That’s kind of what Yogi Berra was getting at when he said “it’s like deja vu all over again.”
Berra, the late Yankee catcher and once New Jersey’s unofficial poet laureate, spent most of his life within walking distance of East Rutherford, N.J., where history could repeat itself all over again in Sunday’s World Cup final between Spain and Argentina. And that makes his words newly relevant.
Argentina and Lionel Messi, the reigning champions, will be seeking to become the first to repeat in 64 years while Spain will be playing in the title game for just the second time ever. And the similarities to its first trip, in 2010, are uncanny.
Sixteen years ago Spain became just the second reigning European champion to win a World Cup. It will enter Sunday’s game as the reigning European champion.
In the run-up to the 2010 World Cup, Spain ran off a 35-game unbeaten streak, which matched the longest in history at the time. La Roja will enter Sunday’s game with a 37-game unbeaten streak, which matches the current longest streak in history.
And that 2010 team was known for an absence of ego and a depth of character, a blue-collar collection of quiet superstars built around a core of Andrés Iniesta, Xavi Hernández and Carles Puyol, players who emphasized humility, unity and selflessness.
This team? It’s the same.
“We’re one big family,” center back Pau Cubarsí said in Spanish.
A family that has already achieved its goal, according to coach Luis de la Fuente. So while Argentina may be feeling the pressure of chasing World Cup history, De la Fuente said his team is playing with house money
“I don’t believe in the idea that finals are there to be won. They’re there to be enjoyed,” he said. “What’s to come could be the icing on the cake.”
Of course a cake is nothing without the icing. But then Spain hasn’t had to separate joy from success in this World Cup, enjoying an unbeaten run to the final whose only blemish has been a tournament-opening draw with Cape Verde.
That was the first of six clean sheets for Spanish keeper Unai Simón, though it’s really been a group effort with Simón facing an average of just two shots on goal a game.
“This team never ceases to amaze me,” De la Fuente said. “The scope for improvement is endless. It was a labor of love, a process. It was about reaching the crucial moment in the best possible shape.”
De la Fuente, 65, whose only senior international appearance as a player came in the 1988 Olympics, coached Spain’s U-23 team to a silver medal in the Tokyo Games in 2021 then took over the national team a year later, after it crashed out of a second straight World Cup in the round of 16.
De la Fuente spent nearly two decades coaching at the youth level, including nine years with Spain’s U19 and U21 national teams. But seven months after taking over the senior team, he led later Spain to its first UEFA Nations League title and a year after that it won its first Champions League title in more than a decade. La Roja has lost just twice in 48 games under De la Fuente, who has the highest winning percentage of any man who has managed more than nine games for Spain.
Given his background, De la Fuente trusts young players — with an average age of 26.7, Spain has the sixth-youngest roster in the World Cup — and his starting lineup includes two teenagers in Cubarsí and forward Lamine Yamal. The core of the team — Simón, Mikel Merino, Dani Olmo, Rodri, Mikel Oyarzabal, Fabián Ruiz — are players he coached to European youth-level championships and ones he has known for half their lives.
That has given the team a level of familiarity and trust that goes both ways.
“This team never ceases to amaze me,” the coach said. “The scope for improvement is endless. It was a labor of love, a process. It was about reaching the crucial moment in the best possible shape.”
And they’ve gotten there, said right back Pedro Porro, another product of De la Fuente’s youth teams, by all pulling in the same direction.
“From the very first day we got here — not just me, but the whole team — we’ve been working toward a common goal,” Porro said. “That’s part of the process. There are no excuses.”
That, too, is something De la Fuente brought to the job, though it’s not an original concept for Spain. It’s more like deja vu all over again.
“We are ordinary, generous people,” the coach said. “We’ve recaptured the spirit of 2010.”
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The ESPYS brought some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment to New York City on Wednesday night, a day that typically ranks among the slowest on the sports calendar.
But this year’s ceremony was preceded by a World Cup semifinal match in Atlanta that was already being described as an instant classic. Lionel Messi and Argentina punched their ticket to a second straight World Cup final with a win over England. The defending champions will meet Spain on Saturday in nearby New Jersey, just a short trip across the Hudson River from where comedian Marcello Hernández opened the ESPYS.
The “Saturday Night Live” star wasted little time taking a few jabs at Jake Paul, Tiger Woods and other sports figures.
ESPN’S JOHN BUCCIGROSS NAMES HIS MOUNT RUSHMORE OF ALL-TIME SPORTSCENTER ANCHORS
Marcello Hernández speaks onstage during the 2026 ESPY Awards at David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York City. (Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
“Mike Tyson ripped my watch off. Welcome to the ESPYS!” Hernández joked after making a boxing-style entrance in a robe with Tyson as part of his entourage.
“I must say, it’s an honor to be here among so many great athletes, and Jake Paul,” Hernández began in his roughly 10-minute monologue.
Paul appeared to take the joke in stride, laughing and applauding as cameras cut to him in the crowd. Hernández then stayed on the YouTube star-turned-boxer, needling him over his history of fighting older opponents.
“Jake, that’s just a joke. Don’t fight me,” Hernández continued. “My dad and my stepdad are both here. They’re over 50, and I know that’s how you like them. So, fight them instead.”
Paul kept laughing as Hernández’s bit played out, eventually closing with the comedian shifting attention to his father and stepfather, who were shown in the audience.
Atmosphere at the 2026 ESPYS at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Square on July 15, 2026, in New York, New York. (Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images)
Hernández later used Caleb Williams’ “Madden 27” cover as a lead into Woods.
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“I want to congratulate Caleb Williams, the quarterback for the Chicago Bears, who will be on the cover of the new Madden video game. Congratulations to Caleb,” Hernández said, before adding, “And Tiger Woods will be on the cover of Grand Theft Auto.”
Woods was arrested in Florida in March on charges of DUI after a car crash. The arrest report said a deputy found pain pills in his pocket and observed signs of impairment at the scene. Woods later announced he would take time away from golf to seek treatment.
Hernández also worked North Carolina football coach Bill Belichick into the monologue, using the 74-year-old’s relationship with Jordon Hudson as part of a joke about the New York Knicks’ title drought.
“The Knicks won their first championship since 1973. And to put into perceptive how long ago that was, in 1973 hockey players didn’t wear helmets, basketball had no three point line. And in 1973, Bill Belichick was the age his girlfriend is now.”
The Knicks later took home the ESPY for Best Team.
Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby and other members of the 2025-26 Knicks championship team took the stage to accept the award, but Josh Hart was noticeably absent. Brunson drew laughs when he joked, “I want to say thank you to the ESPYS for pulling Josh Hart’s invite.”
Earlier in the night Brunson also received the “Best Championship Performance” award.
Jalen Brunson accepts the Best Championship Performance award onstage during the 2026 ESPY Awards at David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center in New York City on July 15, 2026. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for W+P)
Former NBA player Jason Collins, who died in May at age 47 following a battle with Stage 4 glioblastoma, posthumously received the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage. Former MLB pitcher Jim Abbott received the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance, while Scott Ruskan was honored with the Pat Tillman Award for Service.
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The ESPYS are held every summer, bringing together top athletes and other stars to celebrate the best moments from the past year in sports while honoring figures recognized for courage, service and impact. In past years, the ceremony has been held in Los Angeles, but shifted to New York this year.
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