After meeting with the Astros today, it sounds like Yu Darvish will also be meeting with his old team, the Texas Rangers.
Well … maybe. Take it away, conflicting reports:
Darvish next meeting is with #Rangers according to club source
— Jim Bowden (@JimBowdenGM) December 20, 2017
Jon Daniels says #Rangers have no meeting planned with Yu Darvish, whose price supposedly remains out of reach.
— Jeff Wilson (@JeffWilson_FWST) December 19, 2017
Maybe things changed in those seven hours, maybe one of the two reports is flat wrong, or maybe there’s some play with the word “meeting.” In any case, I’ll presume for now that the Rangers are not totally out of this thing, even as it is extremely rare that a player returns to the team that traded him in the year before free agency.
UPDATE: It’s the one about playing with the word “meeting”:
Getting some clarification. No formal negotiating/presentation meeting scheduled between Rangers & Darvish's reps, but Daniels & Darvish are expected to get together for previously scheduled personal talk. There is still no plan to meet. Hope this clears things up a bit.
— Evan Grant (@Evan_P_Grant) December 20, 2017
UPDATE 2: And more than that, maybe the Rangers aren’t even holding out hope for a deal:
Yu Darvish tweeted that he is having dinner with Jon Daniels on Wednesday…..it is not a formal negotiation… just friends having dinner…. Rangers not expected to pursue Darvish… Just another offseason day and night
— TR Sullivan (@Sullivan_Ranger) December 20, 2017
Earlier today, we discussed the Martin Perez injury and how that might lead the Rangers to explore the pitching market a bit more, but it would be a far leap from Martin Perez missing April and May to OMG-we-have-to-schedule-a-meeting-with-Darvish-NOWWWWWW. I’m thinking if the Rangers were interested before, they’re still interested now, and vice versa.
Meanwhile, Darvish himself has weighed in on the meeting process, and he may not be making a decision any time soon:
全然蜜月関係ではないですし、クリスマスまでに決めることもないです。
全部の球団に対してあくまでフラットです。https://t.co/z9Xj0odQRc— ダルビッシュ有(Yu Darvish) (@faridyu) December 20, 2017
The article he shared is a rough read with Google Translate, and, even if I caveat the heck out of it, I’m not going to pretend to get much out of my “reading.” The Google Translate on Darvish’s tweet, however, seems a bit more clear: “It is not Honeymoon relationship at all and I will not decide by Christmas. It is flat to the last for all teams.”
It *seems* like Darvish is refuting the tone of the article, which was heavily focused on the Cubs (and may have even dubbed them the favorite), and which appears to indicate a decision is coming by Christmas. Apparently, the timing, and the exclusive focus on the Cubs, are not correct. With Christmas just six days away, a decision before then was not necessarily expected at this point anyway.
If anyone out there is fluent in Japanese, we’d be very happy to hear your read.
The last two posts on Darvish are here and here, in case you missed any of it today and you want to do more obsessing.