Yu Darvish Bidding Recap
By Editorial Staff
The bidding for Japanese right-hander Yu Darvish ended last night. Still, it is unknown which team won the right to negotiate with Darvish. Few things are clear at this moment regarding Darvish’s bidding, but one this is certain. We know that at least one club bid on Darvish, and that his Japanese team was willing to accept any offer posted for the 25-year-old. Click through for the recap of the Yu Darvish bidding.
If teams were going to bid on Darvish, they had to get their numbers in by Wednesday evening at 5:00 p.m. EST. To recap yesterday’s Yu Darvish rumors, we entered the final day of bidding expecting the righty to command between $80-100 million combined between the posting fee and his new contract. Darvish was rumored to favor playing for a team located on the West Coast. The Rangers, Blue Jays and Yankees were all linked to Darvish as possible favorites.
While we still don’t know who placed the highest bid for Darvish, we do know who wasn’t in on the bidding. According to MLBTR.com, the Giants, Athletics, Marlins, Mets, Rays, Angels, Twins, Red Sox and Orioles all came out yesterday and said that they did not place a bid for Darvish.
The A’s and Red Sox were two teams that hinted that they might be interested in Darvish earlier this offseason, and the Giants and Angels knock two prospective West Coast teams off the list of Darvish’s potential suitors.
Now, who did bid on Darvish?
That list is far shorter at the moment. Actually, it only includes one team, the New York Yankees.
At this time, the Yankees are the only team that is known to have placed a bid on Darvish. This guarantees that Darvish will enter negotiations with a club, as his former team the Nippon Ham Fighters have made it clear that they would accept the top bid no matter what the offer. Luckily for Nippon, the largest bid to come in for Darvish is reportedly “high”.
Now, Nippon has until 5:00 p.m. EST Tuesday to formally accept or reject the top bid. Once they do, the winning team will have 30 days to negotiate a contract with Darvish.
While it was known that the Yankees submitted a bid for Darvish, their total was said to be “modest” according to Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com. Buster Olney of ESPN spoke with three MLB executives who speculated that the winning bid for Darvish would come from one of two teams; the Blue Jays or Rangers.
Word of the official winning Darvish bidder could come out as soon as this morning.
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