Obsessive Yu Darvish Watch: If Price Reaches $150 Million, Twins Are Out

January 23, 2018, by Brett Taylor Chicago Cubs

There could always be a perfectly logical, life-driven reason – we don’t all live on Twitter – but anyone else find it interesting that, unlike all the other recent reports about his doings, Yu Darvish hasn’t tweeted about the Cubs-in-active-talks report?

In any case, while we await further updates on the Cubs’ negotiations (from Darvish himself or otherwise), Mike Berardino offers an important update on the Twins’ willingness to spend at the top of the market:

Club official that has been in contact with #mntwins front office expressed doubt about their chances of landing Yu Darvish now that his market seems revived. “They aren’t giving him $150 million,” official said.

— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) January 23, 2018

For a team that made Darvish a priority this offseason, it would be strange to impose a cap at the level he was expected to get coming into the offseason, but perhaps folks inside the game weren’t actually expecting Darvish to get the six-year, $150-ish million deal he’s been seeking. And, to be fair, I’m not sure he gets that amount either when it’s all said and done. To me, five years and $125 million is looking pretty realistic (and would be very solid, all things considered).

As Michael discussed in the Lukewarm Stove, the Cubs are probably having to decide whether they want to use up $25ish million AAV on Darvish, or spread that out over multiple players like Alex Cobb and another piece, if you can get a great deal. There’s so much I like about Cobb’s immediate future, and there’s at least as much risk in arm health with Darvish as with Cobb. But there’s something about that traditional overpowering stuff that Darvish brings that is very hard to not want.

I mean, just look at this thing: