When the Los Angeles Dodgers signed Yoshinobu Yamamoto prior to the 2024 season, they made him the highest-paid pitcher in MLB history, despite the right-hander never throwing a pitch at the Major League level.

Yamamoto is the first Dodgers pitcher to win the illustrious "POTM" award since Clayton Kershaw did it in April 2023. All-Star catcher Will Smith had some very high praise for Yamamoto when asked about him via Dodgers reporter Jack Harris:

The Los Angeles Dodgers are seeing a new kind of dominance from Yoshinobu Yamamoto and his teammates are noticing.