Yu Darvish Bidding to End Wednesday
By Editorial Staff
We found out yesterday that Japanese right-hander Yu Darvish had officially decided to enter Major League Baseball’s posting system. In said system, major league teams will be able to submit bids for Darvish and the highest bidder will win the right to negotiate with the 25-year-old. Because he was posted yesterday, we also discovered that the Darvish bidding will end next Wednesday.
At this point, it seems as if teams are keeping their cards close to their chest regarding Darvish.
With C.J. Wilson and Mark Buehrle off the market, Darvish takes over the title of the best available starting pitcher. Still, no one appears to be jumping out of their seats to announce their interest in the right-hander.
When the announcement was first made regarding Darvish’s posting, reporters named the Rangers, Blue Jays and Yankees as teams that figured to bid on Yu. The Rangers have since said that, while they are interested in Darvish, they are not willing to gamble $100 million on him. Buster Olney considers the Yankees interest to be “lukewarm” and there has been no Darvish news pertaining to the Blue Jays.
Beyond these three teams, reports have come out that state the Tigers and Dodgers will not be bidding on Darvish. Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo would not confirm or deny a plan to bid on Darvish, but Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post takes this as a sign that Washington will indeed be in on the bidding.
The A’s are willing to deal veteran players this offseason, but still may have interest in Darvish. A’s assistant GM David Forst told Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle that the A’s wouldn’t rule out bidding on Darvish.
Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington told reporters that he and his club will discuss adding Darvish, but at the moment they are very comfortable with the top of their rotation.
Teams have until 5:00 p.m. EST on Wednesday to submit bids on Darvish.
You can check out all of the available free agents by position below.