MLB Rumors: Yu Darvish believed to have 9 figure offers, per Rosenthal

MLB Rumors: Free agent pitcher Yu Darvish is thought to be considering multiple offers of at least $100 million, according to Ken Rosenthal.

This is an intriguing tidbit, and one that could indicate that the Texas Rangers are unlikely to land their former ace. Theoretically, a $100 million offer could be 4 years, $25 million per year or 5 years, $20 million per year, and I’d think that Texas would be willing to do the latter number, though I’m not sure that’s a given. That being said, my guess is that if Darvish has multiple $100M+ offers to consider, there’s something better than 5/$100M out there, and he’s going to have an opportunity to get more guaranteed money with an AAV better than $20 million.

The Chicago Cubs, the Minnesota Twins, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees are the teams (other than the Rangers) that have been most consistently linked to Darvish, though the Yankees and Dodgers are thought to be wanting to move other contracts off the books to get far enough under the luxury tax line that bringing Darvish in wouldn’t push them back over.

Darvish going off the board could potentially start other pitching dominoes falling, as Jake Arrieta, Lance Lynn and Alex Cobb are all also on the market, and seemingly in limbo while everyone waits to see what happens with Yu. The Rangers have been either opportunistic or cheap, depending on your point of view, this offseason, though as I discussed earlier today, they’re not really in a position where spending big on long-term contracts makes a ton of sense for them. That said, they also appear to be poised to make a move on a short-term, large-money deal, if, say, an Alex Cobb were to decide that he doesn’t like the landscape right now, and would prefer to do a one year deal and re-enter the market after 2018.