We won’t know for certain until Tuesday, but the New York Post reports Friday morning that the Toronto Blue Jays are the high bidder for the services of Japanese star pitcher Yu Darvish:
Report: Blue Jays Are High Bidder For Yu Darvish
Having made a posting bid above $40 million and possibly close to $50 million, the Blue Jays are the favorites to land the negotiating rights to Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish.
There is a belief the Cubs also made a large bid on the right-hander but a number hasn’t been attached to their bid.
The Yankees made a bid Wednesday night, but it’s not expected to top what the Blue Jays submitted. The Rangers are also believed to have bid.
According to several sources with knowledge of the situation, the Blue Jays’ made the monster bid on orders from owner Rogers Communications.
Take this with the usual grains of salt, especially considering this tweet:
@JimBowdenESPNxm
JIM BOWDEN multiple sources cooberating the NY Post Report that the Blue Jays won the bidding for Yu Darvish…they have until Tues to complete a deal
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Well. First, Bowden misspelled “corroborating”. Second, the team doesn’t have “until Tuesday” to complete a deal; the deadline for Darvish’s Japanese club, the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, to decide to accept the bid, is Tuesday at 7 a.m. Japan time, according to the Japanese newspaper the Daily Yomiuri. 7 a.m. in Japan is 5 p.m. ET the previous day, so we should know for certain late Monday.
Presuming the Fighters accept the bid, the winning team then has 30 days to reach a contract agreement with Darvish; if that doesn’t happen, the winning team get its posting fee back and Darvish plays another year in Japan.
As always, we await developments.
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