Opinion: Why Yoshinobu Yamamoto could be baseball’s best active pitcher

Yoshinobu Yamamoto (YouTube)

The Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays are tied at one game apiece in the best out of seven World Series. After the Blue Jays clobbered the Dodgers 11-4 in game one, game two was a completely different story as the Dodgers came through with a 5-1 win.

What we are seeing at the moment is magnificent pitching from Yoshinobu Yamamoto of Bizen, Japan. On Saturday, in the second game of the 2025 Major League Baseball World Series, Yamamoto threw a complete game for the second time in the 2025 MLB postseason. Yamamoto threw 105 pitches, of which 73 were strikes. Yamamoto had eight strikeouts compared to zero walks, and gave up four hits, one earned run, and hit one Blue Jays batter.

When Yamamoto threw his first complete game of the 2025 MLB postseason, it was in game two of the 2025 National League Championship Series. Like game two of the World Series, the Dodgers won by a score of 5-1. This time they beat the best team in the 2025 MLB regular season, the Milwaukee Brewers.

You could make the argument that Yamamoto is the best MLB pitcher at the moment. He is the first MLB pitcher to throw two complete games in a single postseason since Madison Bumgarner accomplished the feat in the 2014 MLB postseason with the San Francisco Giants.

In the 2025 MLB postseason, Yamamoto has a record of three wins and one loss and an earned run average of 1.57. In 28 2/3 innings, he has given up 17 hits, five earned runs, four walks and two home runs, to go along with 26 strikeouts and a WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) of 0.73. These statistics would be great in the regular season. These stats are in the playoffs, which is even more eye-boggling. That is why at the moment, Yamamoto has the best arm,  and is the best current MLB pitcher.