Skip to content

Report: Darvish met with Dodgers last week

Mark J. Rebilas / USA TODAY Sports

Free-agent right-hander Yu Darvish essentially confirmed Wednesday five of the six clubs still in the running for his services, acknowledging on Twitter that the Texas Rangers, Chicago Cubs, Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees, and Houston Astros remain in the mix - along with one mystery team.

Well, mystery solved, apparently.

According to Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Los Angeles Dodgers met last week with Darvish, whose otherwise strong stretch run with the club in 2017 was marred by two brutal starts against the Astros in the World Series.

Having exceeded the luxury-tax threshold for a fifth successive season in 2017, the Dodgers - who had a payroll of $244 million last year - weren't expected to sign any marquee free agents this winter. As part of a presumed effort to reset their luxury-tax penalties, the club even traded Adrian Gonzalez, Scott Kazmir, Brandon McCarthy, and Charlie Culberson to Atlanta last month and trimmed their payroll by roughly $28 million, but an ice-cold free-agent market appears to have piqued the Dodgers' interest in bringing Darvish back.

For now, however, Darvish remains unfazed by the slow-developing market, with a source indicating that the 31-year-old isn't yet considering lowering his asking price. (Incidentally, Darvish noted Friday on Twitter that the New York Yankees had made him an offer, but it wasn't the seven-year, $160-million deal that was reported.)

Related: Yankees reportedly believe they can sign Darvish at 'reasonable' price

Last year, his shaky World Series performance notwithstanding, Darvish enjoyed another fine season, putting up a 3.86 ERA (118 ERA+) and 1.16 WHIP with a 27.3 percent strikeout rate over 31 regular-season starts between the Rangers and Dodgers. Since returning from Tommy John surgery two months into the 2016 campaign, Darvish, a four-time All-Star, has crafted a 3.70 ERA across 48 starts, managing 6.3 WAR despite logging only 287 innings.

Season WAR IP ERA WHIP FIP
2012 4.6 191.1 3.9 1.28 3.29
2013 4.5 209.2 2.83 1.07 3.28
2014 3.7 144.1 3.06 1.26 2.84
2016 2.7 100.1 3.41 1.12 3.09
2017 3.5 186.2 3.86 1.16 3.83

Daily Newsletter

Get the latest trending sports news daily in your inbox