The Rangers officially got their man today, signing Yu Darvish to a six-year, $60MM contract on top of the $51.7MM posting fee they will now pay the Nippon Ham Fighters. Darvish will wear #11 with the Rangers according to Jeff Wilson of The Forth Worth Star-Telegram (on Twitter), a number that NPB Tracker's Patrick Newman says will be semi-retired by Nippon Ham. Here's the latest from Texas…
- The Rangers remain interested in Prince Fielder, but Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News says it would likely take a creative, short-term deal to make it happen.
- “I’m intimately aware of our budget and it’s very unlikely," said GM Jon Daniels to reporters (including MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan) when asked about Fielder. Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports corroborates these reports (Twitter link), saying the slugger's price must come way down.
- Morosi adds (on Twitter) that the Rangers and Josh Hamilton shelved extension talks recently so they could focus on Darvish and their arbitration-eligible players. Hamilton doesn't want to talk about a new deal once Spring Training starts.
- "Sometimes these negotiations can be contentious, these were not," said Daniels to reporters (including Anthony Andro of FOXSportsSouthwest.com) when asked about the nature of the Darvish discussions today (Twitter link).
Go Rangers.
He is taking Bengie Molina’s old number. This is an outrage.
maybe we can petition to get the video from Bengie’s triple to complete the cycle played before every game – right before the National Anthem
I like it.
Yeah, just add it to the existing video montage with Rogers’ perfect game, Nolan whipping Ventura, etc…
The problem with Prince Fielder at least with me is the fact, he’s never come out and said this is where I want to play. It always seems to be about the Benjamins with him and is agent. Who can pay me the most! Jon Heyman still lists the Rangers, Nationals and of all Teams the Orioles (blech). I see him as a National, but like I said before, he’s never come out and said where he would like to go.
As for Josh Hamilton, I really can’t see him playing anywhere else, I hope he retires a Ranger.
Now that Darvish is officially signed, heck now I am even curious to see how he does in MLB. I want to see if anyone hits .506 off of him! =P
PS Would the Rangers have any interest in trading Michael Young to the Tigers?
If he had only one more year left on his contract, he’d be a great fit. However, he has two. It would be interesting if it did happen.
It’s a lose lose for him then. If he comes out and says where he wants to play, he’ll get labelled a liar once he signs with someone else who offered him the best contract.
at least then he’d be a very rich liar.
He’s going to be rich either way.
no free agent player ever comes out and says where he wants to play. That would defeat the purpose of exploring the free agent market. Thats why you wont hear Prince ever say he wants to play some where until he signs…then it will be” I was hoping for this all along”
Hamilton more than likely will stay a ranger unless he plays 140+ games and wins another MVP then he might price him self out of arlington, but only in terms of years not $$…I could see a 4/60 with 2-3 option years at 15,17,20 each(first 2 being team options 3rd one being a player or vesting) that way if he gets injured its not a crazy amount of money and year and it gives him a solid pay day with a semi team friendly contract(see how christian he really is)
Young has 2 more seaons on his deal ’12 and ’13 at 16 mill a piece..doubt the tigers would want that/ have a place to play him/ want to pay him 16 mill
so from here on out if Rangers win the world series this year do I have the right to say “The rangers bought their world series”
How does semi-retiring a number work?
i think the same thing will happen to hamilton that happened to pujols… if an extension isnt dont by spring training.. rangers might as well say bye to hamilton
I am really surprised that no team has signed Fielder this late in the off-season. He is a premium first baseman who is still at a young age, and he is looking for a team. I am guessing it is because most of the big spenders have first basemen locked up. If Prince does not get a fair market contract with the Nationals or another high spender, then boy should he have accepted arbitration and remained a Brewer.
yeah IMO Fielder is a prime piece for any ball club… but as you said most of the big spenders have 1b locked up… He might of thought he was lucky Pujols got such a big contract and it set the bar for him… but IMO it was kind of bad luck Pujols reaching FA the same year as him… maybe Angels would of made a move on Fielder this off season had Pujols not reached free agency..never know
my guess is that the rangers were waiting to resolve this darvish thing now that they have, they will turn their attention to Prince. My guess is teams are waiting to see if the rangers are interested. The true Fielder market will show up in the next few days.
The Rangers are interested, but from what’s been reported on this site a lot of teams would be interested if Fielder was willing to sign for the term the Rangers want.
some see his weight being an issue too. although the contract is the big issue, but his weight prob has alittle to do with it. but his bat would be something every team would want. hell…. wish the yanks would sign him for a year at like 20 million to be the full time DH lol. he then can build his stock up hitting in that stadium as a lefty, but their trying to get their payroll under 189 by 2014 which will prob happen once they get rid of burnetts contract.
So they’re spending 30% more on Darvish than Wilson. Wilson was worth 5 WAR. Darvish will need to be a 6.5+ WAR player or they should have just resigned him.
I agree. I would rather have CJ Wilson and the money to spend on other free agents. Darvish has to overcome 4 versus 5 days between starts, a different physical baseball, vastly more talented hitters which also causes more pitches per inning, language barriers, and being separated from his children as he is getting divorced. There is just a lot of risk there. CJ was 7th is WAR among ALL pitchers last year. That ain’t hay.
The AAV is $1 million more for Yu than CJ and he is 6 years younger and is projected to be an ace. (I said projected so don’t jump on me for that) CJ was a #2 at best. The Rangers did a lot of homework on the guy and feel he is a better investment and we will have him until he is CJ’s age now. The thought if you want to look at it is that the rangers know the cost of trading for a 25 yr old ace caliber pitcher and decided the cash was better than the prospects. We are getting to that point where our young guys are going to start getting expensive and have to decide if we are better off using a stud prospect to fill a void and let some of these guys walk. I like CJ but he left Texas with a really bad taste in our mouths with that post season.
Is semi retiring a number like: I’m going to retire this number but if you comeback you can use it.
I don’t think the Rangers are gonna be in on the Fielder bidding, nor the Cubs or Orioles. It’s gonna come down to the M’s, the Nats & some mystery team. Go M’s!
I dont know why the O”s arent being mentioned for fielder..DD said the market would have to diminish considerably….well!..
Because the Orioles are not rebuilding the franchise , they are destroying it. It doesn’t take 14 years to rebuild a team. They have been looking for the cheapest solutions and then hoping for the best.
Fielder won’t play for them till the end of his careeer . Ala Vlad . After the worst season I can remember , the O’s have had the worst off season I can remember . This year is set up to be a disaster .