Yu Darvish To Be Posted Thursday

Nippon-Ham Fighters ace Yu Darvish will be posted tomorrow, tweets agent Don Nomura. Dylan Hernandez of the L.A. Times tweets confirmation from Darvish himself, while NPB Tracker's Patrick Newman provides a translation of Darvish's message to fans.

We've heard in recent weeks that Darvish may be posted following the Winter Meetings, and that appears to be his case. His father had told reporters that there was a "50-50" chance he'd be posted at all, and in Jon Paul Morosi's Winter Meetings preview, we heard that Darvish may have become "disillusioned" with the posting system, at least in part due to Hisashi Iwakuma's 2010 situation with the Athletics.

All of that seems to be moot now, as the 25-year-old Darvish is set to get the opportunity to take his oustanding credentials to Major League Baseball. Darvish hasn't posted an ERA above 2.00 since 2007. HIs 2011 resume included 232 innings of 1.44 ERA ball with a whopping 10.7 K/9 and a 1.4 BB/9 that contributed to his microscopic 0.83 WHIP. He allowed only five home runs in those 232 innings.

To this point, Darvish has been linked to a number of Major League teams. Danny Knobler of CBS Sports speculates (on Twitter) that the Rangers, Yankees, and Blue Jays could be Darvish's most likely suitors.

He will be viewed as an alternative to C.J. Wilson and Mark Buehrle, the market's two most sought after pitchers prior to his posting. When Tim Dierkes conducted a poll of five agents and one MLB executive in October, the consensus was that Darvish's posting fee could rival that of Daisuke Matsuzaka and that a $100MM commitmement was likely. In addition to Nomura, Darvish is represented by Arn Tellem.