Jack Curry delivers dagger to Yankees fans' hearts with Yoshinobu Yamamoto scoop

Adam Weinrib

Republic of Korea v Japan - Baseball - Olympics: Day 12 / Koji Watanabe/GettyImages

Curry. Curry. Why did it have to be Curry?!

The most trusted man in the Yankees rumor space had a live YES Network broadcast scheduled Thursday night at 9:00 PM, right in the middle of what felt like the end game of Yamamoto-mania. A Pat McAfee producer had tweeted that New York had secured their man. Aaron Boone had spent the entire afternoon leaking meeting details, down to a Hideki Matsui message and a No. 18 pinstriped jersey that had been handed off to the 25-year-old ace. All that was left to top the day off was a message from Curry and a nugget from the inside.

Unfortunately, the only breadcrumbs Curry dropped on that 9:00 PM show were relatively redundant. The Yankees felt good. They believed they were well-positioned. Logic had dictated they'd made a massive offer.

But nothing more. Nothing concrete. Nothing reassuring. And, by the end of the night, we all learned the reason behind Curry's nebulous messages: Yamamoto was signing with the Dodgers. And Curry himself was the one to break it.

Hearing Yamamoto will sign with the Dodgers for more than $300 million.
— JackCurryYES (@JackCurryYES) December 22, 2023

Yoshinobu Yamamoto contract details with Dodgers (not Yankees)

Gutting. Somehow, this is all Marwin González's fault.

Per Jeff Passan, this $300+ million deal is, in fact, a $325 million deal spread over 12 years, which will take the right-hander -- a rumored Dodgers fan -- through his age-37 season.

Perhaps Yamamoto was having cold feet on Thursday when he was removed from the manifest for Rams-Saints. Perhaps he just didn't want the poor optics while as many as six other teams were still in the chase. Or perhaps Joel Wolfe wanted to squeeze a few more bucks out of the Dodgers before letting the ink dry.

Regardless, the Yankees will now be forced to pivot -- along with the Mets, Red Sox and Giants -- to the rest of a relatively uninspiring market. Sure, all of these teams came up short, but the Yankees were likely the surest among them. To see the Dodgers pull off New York's patented move of spreading the AAV out over additional years -- and to see Curry be the messenger -- hurts double.

Adam Weinrib

Adam Weinrib is a Content Director on the FanSided network, and has been the co-editor at Yanks Go Yard for 6 years. He also co-hosts The Baseball Insiders Podcast thrice weekly, alongside FanSided MLB insider Robert Murray, as well as the Yanks Go Yard Podcast. Previously, he was a Senior Editor at 12up.com, and has been covering MLB and NFL for 10 years. He was also a headline and features contributor at ClickHole and Onion Sports, as well as the Associate Producer of the ESPN 30 for 30 film "Believeland". An avowed fan of the New York sports teams -- specifically the Yankees -- as well as the North Carolina Tar Heels, you can find Adam complaining mid-game on Twitter, as well as on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn if the game goes really poorly.