Rangers, agents for Darvish, Lucroy have had 'informal' talks
At the moment, the Texas Rangers have yet to formally sit down with agents to discuss contracts for some of their big-time players.
Rangers general manager Jon Daniels went on "The Ticket's Norm-a-thon" on Wednesday, according to Sportsday, and said that while he hasn't had serious talks with Jonathan Lucroy or Yu Darvish yet, it's standard protocol.
"We haven't seriously sat down with Lucroy and his agents yet," Daniels said. "We've had informal conversations with his agents. We talk about having those conversations this winter and spring. Same answer for Darvish.
"We will sit down and talk to them but haven't yet and that's by design with so much going on.
Lucroy was acquired at the trade deadline last year, and the Rangers seem to be happy with him. In 47 games, he slashed .276/.345/.539 with 11 home runs, and 31 RBIs.
Darvish was an All-Star in his first three seasons with the club before undergoing Tommy John surgery in March 2015. He returned to action last season for the first time since 2014, and authored a 3.41 ERA over 100 1/3 innings of work.
Following the end of the 2017 season, Darvish will hit free agency, and Daniels doesn't expect him to be cheap at that point.
"The market is not going down for Yu," he said. "I think he's going to have a monster year. I really do. I think in a lot of ways this is the year we envisioned when we signed him.
"He's been very productive since we signed him ... the bottom line is when he's on the mound he's one of the best in the game."