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VOL.28,
NO. 153
Star pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto joins Dodgers, is ‘beyond ecstatic’
Jury deliberations begin in manslaughter trial of ex-LAPD officer
By City News Service
By Kristy Ramirez, City News Service
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uperstar Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto officially donned Dodger blue for the first time Wednesday, wearing a No. 18 jersey during an introductory news conference at Dodger Stadium and saying “I came here to win.” “Good afternoon, my name is Yoshinobu Yamamoto,” he said to open his comments — reading an English-language script before answering questions in Japanese for the rest of the media session. “I am beyond ecstatic to become a member of this historic franchise and cannot express how much it means to me to be able to call Los Angeles my new home,” he added in English. The 25-year-old righthander agreed to terms last Thursday on a 12-year, $325 million contract — the largest deal for a pitcher in terms of years and value in Major League Baseball history, according to reports. He’ll join Shohei Ohtani and fellow free-agent pitcher Tyler Glasnow on a 2024 Dodgers team that will be loaded with big stars, huge contracts and sky-high expectations. Ohtani, the two-way slugging/pitching star, recently signed a historic 10-year, $700 million with the Dodgers — but deferred the vast majority of the pact to enable the Dodgers to pursue other stars such as Yamamoto. Yamamoto said he likely would have signed with the Dodgers had Ohtani signed elsewhere — but that Ohtani’s decision to defer really resonated with him. “It was really clear that (the Dodgers) want to win, but on top of that, the fact that Shohei was doing that also signaled it wasn’t just the front office, it was also the players that have bought
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Yoshinobu Yamamoto. | Photo courtesy of the Los Angeles Dodgers/X
into this winning atmosphere as well,” he said through an interpreter. He stressed the Dodgers’ chase of a World Series title tipped his decision after he was courted by numerous other MLB teams. “It was very important for me (to join) a team that wants to win, and not only now but in the future as well,” he said, adding that “through this whole process, the Dodgers provided that opportunity the most.” He said the Dodgers brought some of their incumbent stars into the recruiting process as well, which also helped. “I really felt the front
office people were all committed in the same direction,” he said. “The Dodgers brought out some of their key players to me and I was really able to feel some of that clubhouse atmosphere.” Yamamoto’s deal includes a $50 million signing bonus and does not include deferrals. It also includes two opt-outs, according to reports. The Dodgers will also pay an additional $50.6 million posting fee to Yamamoto’s previous team, the Orix Buffaloes, ESPN reported. Combined with the Ohtani’s contract, the Dodgers have committed more than $1 billion to two
players in their quest to win another World Series. Los Angeles won the World Series in 2020, but other seasons in recent years have ended in playoff disappointment. Yamamoto was the MVP of Japan’s Pacific League and winner of the league’s Eiji Sawamura Award as its best starting pitcher each of the past three seasons. He had a 70-29 record with a 1.82 ERA in seven seasons with the Buffaloes. Yamamoto was a member of the championshipwinning Japanese team in the 2023 World Baseball Classic and the gold medalwinning team at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
urors began deliberating Wednesday in the trial of a former Los Angeles police officer suspected of fatally shooting a developmentally disabled man and critically wounding the victim’s parents in the Corona Costco. Salvador Alejandro Sanchez, 33, of Corona, is charged with voluntary manslaughter and two counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm. He additionally faces sentenceenhancing allegations of using a firearm and causing great bodily injury. The charges stem from a shooting that occurred on the evening of June 14, 2019, inside the Costco at 480 N. McKinley St., where 32-year-old Kenneth French was killed and his parents, Russell and Paola French of Corona, were wounded. Sanchez, who was an off-duty Los Angeles Police Department officer at the time of the shooting, is free on a $155,000 bond. During opening statements, prosecutors said the French family was shopping at the store when they stopped at a food sample table, where the defendant was also standing holding his son, and for unknown reasons Kenneth French punched the defendant in the back of the head and stepped back from him. “Within seconds, the defendant pulled out a gun and shot Kenneth four times in the back, killing him,” Deputy Attorney General Michael Murphy said. “The defendant also shot Kenneth’s mother and Kenneth’s father as they were trying to protect their son from being shot.” But in his closing argument Wednesday morning at the Larson Justice Center in Indio, Sanchez’s attorney Michael Schwartz told jurors that Sanchez was unexpectedly punched in the back of the head so hard that he felt as though he was shot, and acted in self-defense. Schwartz said Sanchez only had a few seconds to react to the danger because the most vulnerable person in the area was his son. Sanchez was injured, feared the possibility of his son also being injured, and if he had taken time to confirm whether or not Kenneth French had a gun and he did end up having one, he would have been dead by the time he found out. The attorney said Sanchez had no intention of shooting the victim dead, just until he was down and knew the threat was over, adding that his client still had three bullets that weren’t fired. Murphy rebutted the argument by telling jurors that it was undisputed Kenneth French punched the defendant and that he shouldn’t have done that, but the defendant also drew his gun and shot 10 rounds. Murphy added that no injury or bruises ever appeared on the defendant and that his fear of hypothetical scenarios like the threat to his son was not sufficient to justify the deadly shooting because no reasonable person would have done what he did. When someone chooses to carry a gun, they also choose to carry the power of life and death, which requires great See Ex-LAPD officer Page 16