In less than three weeks, pitchers and catchers will report to Spring Training, but one big time free agent pitcher has yet to sign. That looks likey to change as Yu Darvish could choose to sign with a team soon.
This offseason the free agent market hasn’t played out too well. With many teams not in contention for the 2018 season and others waiting for the highly-anticipated 2018 MLB free agency class, a lot of big-name free agents remain unsigned. One of those free agents is star pitcher Yu Darvish.
Darvish, who has pitched with both the Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Dodgers, has five years of MLB experience under his belt. At 31 years old, Darvish looks to play a vital role for whichever team he ends up with.
According to MLB Network reporter Jon Morosi, it looks like we’ll find out which team Darvish signs with sometime this week.
Source: Yu Darvish is increasingly likely to sign with an @MLB team this week. #Twins are among the teams with whom he is engaged in ongoing discussions. @MLBNetwork
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) January 24, 2018
Morosi also notes in his tweet that the Minnesota Twins are one of the teams that continues to talk with Darvish. However, four or five different teams remain in on the Darvish sweepstakes.
The hard-throwing right-hander owns a career 56-42 regular season record with a 3.42 ERA, 3.30 FIP, 1.179 WHIP and 1,021 strikeouts in his five seasons. Darvish has also made four All-Star teams in his career.
The dwindling market could result in Darvish ending up with a smaller contract than initially expected. He also cost himself some money with his World Series performance in 2017.
In two World Series games, Darvish pitched just a combined 3.1 innings while giving up eight earned runs for an ERA of 21.60. He also managed to not record one strikeout during those two games. It seemed the Houston Astros picked up on Darvish tipping his pitches.
Nevertheless, Darvish remains one of the best starting pitchers on the market. Here’s a look at some teams that he could sign with in MLB free agency.