CNN —Watch out baseball fans; Japan’s next big star looks to be on the move. Pitching sensation Yoshinobu Yamamoto is set to make a high-profile switch to Major League Baseball (MLB) during the offseason, after he was posted as a free agent by Japan’s Orix Buffaloes on Monday. The 25-year-old is expected to attract the attention of the league’s biggest franchises and could receive a highly-lucrative contract worth around $200m, per Reuters. Yamamoto has certainly impressed during the early part of his career, being awarded the Eiji Sawamura Award – given to the top starting pitcher in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) – on three occasions. Yamamoto is set to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui and current star Shohei Ohtani who have made the switch from Japan to the MLB.

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Persons: Japan’s, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Yamamoto, Eiji Sawamura, –, Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui, Shohei Ohtani Organizations: CNN, Major League Baseball, Japan’s Orix Buffaloes, Reuters, Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, Triple Crown –, NPB’s Pacific League, Tokyo, The Athletic, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, LA Dodgers, MLB Locations: Japan