Yu Darvish and Father Visit Texas
Japanese Pitcher Yu Darvish and his father visited the ballpark in Arlington and met with Texas Rangers owners and players today. The visit was touted as being casual with the pitcher wanting to get a sense of what it would be like to play for the Rangers.
The Texas Rangers won the right to negotiate with Darvish with a record breaking $51.7 million dollar bid this past December. The team has until January 18th at 4:15pm to conclude negotiations or the bid money is returned and Darvish stays in Japan.
According to sources in Japan Darvish wanted to get some “valuable information before negotiations begin in earnest.”
It is expected that the Rangers will have to pay Darvish somewhere in the same ballpark as C.J. Wilson’s 5 year, $77 Million dollar contract.
In the 2011 Campaign, Darvish was 18-6 with a 1.44 ERA and 276 strikeouts in 28 games for the Nippon Ham Fighters. The Japanese phenom recorded 232 innings. Darvish completed his fifth straight season with an ERA of under 2.00.
The Texas Rangers’ bid beat out other teams who were known to want to win the rights to Darvish including The New York Yankees, The Toronto Blue Jays, The Washington Nationals and the Florida Marlins. It in unknown how much each team bid because the bids are done blind, with the highest bid being the winner.
Texas has been in the World Series for the last two years, but has yet to bring the title home to Texas. With the Los Angeles Angels completing some of the biggest off season moves, Texas needs to build up their team in order to combat their AL West rivals.
Do you think Yu Darvish will head to Texas?
