I’ll admit up front that I’d expected that the Twins, an engaged suitor on Yu Darvish from the word go, would have made a formal offer to Darvish a long time ago. Then again, remember those reports from January when they were still trying to schedule a meeting with him? So maybe it isn’t so much of a surprise that they are only just now making things official.
In any case, Darren Wolfson reports that Darvish remains the Twins’ top target (notable, given the injury to Ervin Santana), and they have now made a formal offer. Wolfson suggests it’s either four or five years, with the Twins reluctant to go to six years (h/t MLBTR). The dollars involved were not reported, but with the group of suitors for Darvish relatively well known at this point, and multiple reports that Darvish has received multiple $100+ million offers, it’s a fair bet that this is one of them.
It’s interesting to me that the possibility that the Twins are only at four years is still out there. Recently, it seemed reasonably logical to conclude, based on the many available reports, that the Twins and Brewers were at five years, and the Cubs were holding at four years until/unless going to five years would absolutely close the deal. The implication, then, is maybe just a little more softness in the market for Darvish right now.
Either way, it remains difficult to see Darvish ultimately signing a four-year deal, even if it were 4/$100M. Perhaps the formal offer process from the Twins will help spur things along by giving him a hard-and-fast offer (together with the Brewers’ offer) to take back to the Cubs to match or beat. The belief out there is that, barring a surprise entry by the Dodgers or Rangers (or maybe Yankees), other suitors would have to meaningfully outbid the Cubs to land Darvish.
If that’s true, the Cubs may have just received their target price.