Orix's Yoshinobu Yamamoto throws no-hitter with Brian Cashman in attendance

The free agent likely to get the most attention this offseason currently plays in Japan.

Expect the Yankees to be heavily involved in the pursuit of Japanese star pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, though they hardly will be alone in that quest.

Yamamoto, 25, the righthanded ace for the Orix Buffaloes of the Nippon Professional Baseball League, is in the midst of another dominant season and is expected to be posted this winter.

Yamamoto threw a no-hitter  on Saturday night against the Lotte Marines in Chiba, Japan, and Yankees general manager Brian Cashman had a front-row seat behind home plate to see it.

Cashman, along with senior adviser Omar Minaya, arrived in Japan this past week to scout Yamamoto, who is 14-5 with a 1.26 ERA this season, and other players from the NPBL who potentially could be major-leaguers.

The Yankees, along with a plenty of other clubs, have scouted Yamamoto throughout the season. Brandon Duckworth, one of the club’s professional scouts with a reputation in the industry as a pitching specialist, saw him early in the season. Matt Daley, the club’s pro scouting director, spent a portion of August in Japan.

One American League scout currently in Japan counted 15 MLB teams with representatives at Yamamoto’s start Saturday — the Blue Jays, Phillies, Diamondbacks, Padres, Dodgers and Giants among them (the Mets have been heavily scouting him as well).

“Filthy,” a National League scout in attendance Saturday night said of Yamamoto. “Missed a perfect game by a walk and hit by pitch. Fastball was 95-97, couple of cutters. Devastating split [89-93 mph] and some dirty curveballs [78-80 mph]. Was in absolute complete control.”

Cashman and Minaya planned to stay another night in Chiba to watch one of its pitchers, flame-throwing righty Roki Sasaki, who is slated to start Sunday night. Sasaki, who is not expected to be posted this offseason, is a 21-year-old righty who is 7-2 with a 1.48 ERA. He has struck out 130 batters and walked 15 in 85 innings.

Meanwhile, back in the Bronx . . . 

The Yankees (70-72) neither hit nor pitched nor fielded with any degree of consistency Saturday afternoon and were outhit 11-4 by the Brewers in a 9-2 loss that put them nine games out of the AL’s third wild-card spot. The score was tied at 2-2 through seven innings before Jonathan Loaisiga, Matt Krook and Ron Marinacchio combined to allow seven runs in the final two innings (a hideous ninth featured four walks and a hit batsman).

The lone bright spot? Michael King, whom the Yankees have been stretching out in recent weeks to see if he can be part of their 2024 rotation. King, who has never wavered in his desire to be a big-league starter, allowed two runs (one earned) and four hits in five innings, striking out nine.

King allowed both runs in the second when rightfielder Giancarlo Stanton failed to come up with a drive to the wall by Willy Adames. It went for an RBI triple, and when DJ LeMahieu threw wildly to third, Adames scored on the play.

Sevy done

After the game Aaron Boone said Luis Severino, who was forced to leave Friday night’s start, was diagnosed with a “high-grade strain” of his left oblique and is “done for the year.”  Severino, a free agent after the season, went 4-8 with a 6.65 ERA in 19 games (18 starts).

Jeter on Volpe

Count Derek Jeter among those impressed with rookie shortstop Anthony Volpe, who grew up a fan of the Yankees and all but idolized the Hall of Famer.

“The thing that stands out the most is the fact that whether he’s had an up and down game, or a week or a month, he doesn’t take it to the defensive side,” Jeter said. “[That] says a lot about his maturity. He’s going to get better. It all comes with experience. It’s tough to play here in New York as a young player, the expectations are always high, but from everything I can tell, the way he handles himself is what stands out the most.”

Volpe went 1-for-4 with an RBI on Saturday and is hitting .214 with 20 homers, 58 RBIs, 22 stolen bases and a .688 OPS in 141 games.  

Torre on Boone

Boone, who hit the home run that sent the Yankees to the 2003 World Series, heard some boos during pre-ceremony introductions Saturday, and Joe Torre, who won four World Series as the Yankees' manager from 1996-2007, didn’t sound surprised. Nor did he take the fans to task.

“When you agree to do this job . . . the expectations, they’re sky-high. There’s no getting around it,” Torre said. “You’re going to have to deal with it and understand that there’s always that cloud that’s going to hang over when things go badly . . . They’ve had some bad breaks, but that’s not an excuse when you’re a member of the Yankees. You’re expected to win. When he signed up for it, he knew what he was getting into.”