The Giants reportedly met with Yoshinobu Yamamoto as front office moves on from Ohtani

According to ESPN’s Buster Olney, the Giants met with Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Sunday, one day after Ohtani made his destination known.

The 25-year-old right-hander is perhaps the biggest name left in free agency, now that Ohtani has chosen his next stop, with the entirety of the baseball world now seemingly setting its eyes on Yamamoto. The pitcher reportedly has been meeting with teams in Los Angeles throughout the weekend and on Monday.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that the Giants are in on the potential star, as president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi flew out to watch Yamamoto pitch one of his final games in the Japanese playoffs back in October. The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly reported at the time that “there’s a sense within the industry that the Giants won’t allow another team to outbid them for his services.”

Still, it’s hard to know how much importance Giants fans should place in the meeting with Yamamoto. After all, while it seemed like the Giants were among the four finalists for Ohtani, a report from MLB Network insider Jon Heyman made it sound like they were outside of Ohtani’s final three.

The Giants have never signed anyone for close to that amount, with the largest deal ever given to a free agent being Johnny Cueto’s six-year, $130 million deal in the 2015-16 offseason. Even outside of free agency, the most they’ve ever given out on a single contract was $167 million on Buster Posey’s eight-year extension in 2013.