Got Yu Darvish fever yet?
The posting deadline passed last night, but Yu Darvish is an international man of mystery, so the entire process is shrouded in delightful secrecy. So we've got Rumors! Rumors galore!
After distilling all the tweets and anonymous "sources", we are left to believe that the Blue Jays and Rangers made huge bids for Darvish. It isn't clear which club went bigger, but Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News tweets that the Rangers may have bid somewhere in the $40 million range, and the Blue Jays' bid may have exceeded $50 million. And remember -- that is just the price paid to Darvish's Japanese club, the Nippon Ham Fighters, for negotiating rights.
Update: Word Is Blue Jays Win Darvish Auction
There also seems to be fairly credible reports that the Yankees put in a bid, but it is rumored to be modest, and the Cubs are also believed to have bid. Once the negotiations with Darvish begin, it could cost an extra $70-$80 million to sign him.
See, here's the rub: Darvish thinks that the posting process itself is unfair, and it is believed that the bigger the winning posting bid, the more money Darvish is going to demand from an MLB club. Furthermore, Darvish seems to have a particular preference (as many Japanese players do) to stay on the West Coast. And on top of it all, he seems perfectly content to stay with the Fighters in Japan.
So there's a good chance that Darvish doesn't end up signing with whichever team wins the posting auction -- in which case the Fighters would return the posting fee. For now, the Fighters have four days to accept the bid -- and accept it they will, if it is anywhere close to as big as we're being told.
Darvish, 25, is looked at by many scouts to be a legitimate ace. He has posted a sub-2.00 ERA for five straight seasons in Japan, and is coming off his best season yet, going 18-6 with a 1.44 ERA.
Dodgers bench coach and former Royals manager Trey Hillman managed Darvish for three years in Japan before taking the Kansas City job, and he's got rave reviews for Darvish.
"He's a No. 1," Hillman told the USA Today. "The only reason he wouldn't be called a No. 1 on a lot of (major league) teams is they wouldn't want to hurt their current No. 1s' feelings."
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[Baseball buzz turns to imports Yu Darvish, Yoenis Cespedes]
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