The offseason, as bellowed from lo these many rooftops, is proceeding with the haste of a continuing education course taught by a sloth encased in pancake syrup. As such, this was the case even before Friday's events: 

Yu Darvish, the free-agent right-hander, previously broke the news that one mystery teams was interested in him, in addition to the Yankees, Cubs, Twins, Astros and Rangers. On Friday, veteran newsman Yu Darvish gave us the dirty yet again: 

Yep, Mr. Darvish has declared that the numbers are not to his liking when it comes to the Yankees' offer. Perhaps that's not surprising. While the Yankees are indeed interested in fortifying the rotation behind Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka and Sonny Gray, they have a self-imposed budget to consider. The Yankees have a stated goal to stay under the $197 tax threshold for 2018, and signing Darvish at the likely going rates would be difficult under those circumstances. That's why the Yankees are looking to shed some salary, likely in the form of Jacoby Ellsbury. The obvious problem is that teams don't want Ellsbury. As such, Darvish's market might have to crater in order for the Yankees to make him that offer. 

Certainly, Darvish's market shouldn't crater. The 31-year-old remains one of the elite bat-missers in the game today, and he boasts an impressive 126 ERA+ across 131 career starts. As for those playoff struggles in 2017, they constitute a tiny sample and were reportedly a product of Darvish tipping pitches. 

In any event, no one's covering the Yu Darvish beat this offseason quite like Yu Darvish.