Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish has signed a $60 million, six-year deal with the Texas Rangers. Under a rumor part of the deal Darvish has the right to opt out of the final year of his contract should certain parameters not be met.
Under terms of his agreement $56 million will be paid in guaranteed salary.
Darvish signed his contract just before the 5 p.m. ET deadline on Wednesday after 30 days of negotiations which began after the Texas Rangers submitted a record $51.7 million bid to talk with the player.
The agreed upon payment will be sent to the Nippon-Ham Fighters and Darvish will become a primetime pitcher in the United States.
On his website Darvish posted a note about his new MLB home:
“I will have a press conference first in America and then come back to Japan at which point I will express my gratitude to my fans here in Japan,” he wrote.
When all is said and done and the players contract and posting fees are combined the Texas Rangers paid more than $111 million to sign Yu Darvish, making it the most expensive deal of it’s kind, eclipsing the $103 million the Boston Red Sox negotiated when signing Daisuke Matsuzaka.
Last season with his Japanese team Darvish went 18-6 with a league-best 1.44 ERA, he also amassed 276 strikeouts and walked just 36 batters in 232 innings of play.
Speaking of the teams decision to sign Darvish Texas Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said.:
“We saw a guy that we felt was built to pitch innings and has a classic pitcher’s build,” and “He has a real commitment to his conditioning and work ethic. We think he can pitch innings at a high caliber for a large amount of time.”
Do you believe the Texas Rangers made the right decision in shelling out $111 million to secure Yu Darvish for their pitching roster?
