MLB Trade Rumors: The fading Rangers are reaching out to teams about Yu Darvish
The Rangers are reportedly doing prep work in case they continue to fall out of the race
By
Mike Axisa
•
2 min read
This week has not gone well for the Texas Rangers. Thursday night's loss (BAL 9, TEX 7) was their fifth straight and it clinched a four-game sweep at the hands of the Orioles, dropping the Rangers to 45-50 on the season. They are a whopping 18 games back in the AL West and 4 1/2 games back of the second wild card spot with six teams ahead of them. FanGraphs puts their postseason odds at 11.2 percent.
With the team fading in the standings and the July 31 trade deadline a little more than a week away, the Rangers have started to reach out to teams about staff ace Yu Darvish, reports Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports. Darvish is an impending free agent and would instantly become the best available starting pitcher should Texas indeed make him available. Here are the details from Passan:
The Texas Rangers have started reaching out to teams potentially interested in acquiring star pitcher Yu Darvish, gathering information on what sort of return they could receive if they decide to trade him before the July 31 deadline, major league sources told Yahoo Sports on Thursday.
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By feeling out Darvish's market a dozen days before the deadline, Texas gives itself a week or so to climb back into the playoff race while simultaneously allowing for a white flag to be raised without being caught flat-footed.
Darvish, 30, has a 3.45 ERA (133 ERA+) with 131 strikeouts in 125 1/3 innings so far this season. He hasn't been quite as dominant as he was prior to Tommy John surgery in 2015, though he's still very good, and pretty much every team in baseball would benefit from adding him to their rotation. The Rangers will have no trouble finding potential suitors. There figures to be a bidding war.
Because he is a rental, Darvish's market is realistically limited to contending teams. Rebuilding clubs like, say, the Padres or Phillies are not going to trade top prospects to get him only to potentially lose him to free agency this winter. The Cubs, even after acquiring Jose Quintana, stand out as a logical landing spot for Darvish, though they may no longer have the prospects to swing a deal. The Dodgers, Yankees, Indians, Rockies, Astros, and Nationals all figure to have serious interest, among others.
The Rangers would surely love to re-sign Darvish beyond this season, so they're deciding between trading him for a boatload of young players, or keeping him and trying to work out a contract extension. Trading Darvish and re-signing him as a free agent sounds like a wonderful idea. That's exactly what the Yankees did with Aroldis Chapman last year. That said, there's no guarantee Darvish will re-sign with the team. The Red Sox tried that move with Jon Lester and it backfired.
Texas has nine more games to play before the trade deadline, which will give them a chance to climb up the wild card standings. If they can make some headway over the next week or so, they very well might keep Darvish and try to make a run. If they slip further out of the race, the chances of Darvish being traded before the July 31 go up exponentially.
