Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
According to Ken Rosenthal, Yu Darvish has agreed to a six year, $126 million contract with the Cubs:
BREAKING: Yu Darvish to #Cubs, six year-deal in $150M range, sources tell The Athletic. Pending physical.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) February 10, 2018
Again: Darvish to #Cubs, six years, $126M, pending physical, sources tell The Athletic. Chance to get to $150M range through incentives.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) February 10, 2018
As you might have noticed, the Chicago Cubs are most definitely not the Los Angeles Dodgers. But per Jon Heyman, the Dodgers were in on Darvish until the end.
dodgers were said to have offered in the same ballpark as cubs, but he picked chicago #darvish
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) February 10, 2018
Heyman added that while the Dodgers were willing to go to six years with their offer, that came on a contingency basis, and never got all that close to the $126 million that Chicago offered.
dodgers were very interested. but their offers were contingent on being able to move salary. they made contingent offers.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) February 10, 2018
dodgers are intent on staying below the $197M so couldn't technically commit to that money yet. sources says that in any case, they were below the 126, even contingently.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) February 10, 2018
How’s the Dodgers Digest crew taking the news?
— Dustin Nosler (@DustinNosler) February 10, 2018
— Daniel Brim (@DanielBrim) February 10, 2018
Dustin has written several times this offseason about the possibility of bringing Darvish back, most recently on Thursday. Basically, given the pitching options the Dodgers already have, re-adding Darvish would have been a bit of a luxury, but one the Dodgers could afford — except it would’ve meant probably not being able to reset the luxury tax, which is money they’re hoping to save for next year’s free-agent bonanza (that almost certainly includes Clayton Kershaw).
As it stands, the Dodgers have a rotation consisting of Kershaw, Rich Hill, Alex Wood, Kenta Maeda and Hyun-Jin Ryu. They’ve also got Walker Buehler, Ross Stripling and Brock Stewart waiting in the wings in the seemingly inevitable event of injury, plus whatever spot starters may get called up from Triple-A this year. Re-signing Darvish would have definitely made the rotation better — despite what anyone traumatized by the World Series might think — but it’s also probably not going to make the difference, at least not when it comes to the division.
In any event, there’s a good possibility the Dodgers will still add another starter. As Dustin notes, “The Dodgers have added a starting pitcher at the non-waiver trade deadline in all three years under this new front office.” It may not even take that long this time around. Darvish would have been the easy option, but it’s not like we haven’t seen this team get creative before.
