The Rangers officially got their man today, signing Yu Darvish to a six-year, $60MM contract on top of the $51.7MM posting fee they will now pay the Nippon Ham Fighters. Darvish will wear #11 with the Rangers according to Jeff Wilson of The Forth Worth Star-Telegram (on Twitter), a number that NPB Tracker's Patrick Newman says will be semi-retired by Nippon Ham. Here's the latest from Texas…
- The Rangers remain interested in Prince Fielder, but Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News says it would likely take a creative, short-term deal to make it happen.
- “I’m intimately aware of our budget and it’s very unlikely," said GM Jon Daniels to reporters (including MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan) when asked about Fielder. Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports corroborates these reports (Twitter link), saying the slugger's price must come way down.
- Morosi adds (on Twitter) that the Rangers and Josh Hamilton shelved extension talks recently so they could focus on Darvish and their arbitration-eligible players. Hamilton doesn't want to talk about a new deal once Spring Training starts.
- "Sometimes these negotiations can be contentious, these were not," said Daniels to reporters (including Anthony Andro of FOXSportsSouthwest.com) when asked about the nature of the Darvish discussions today (Twitter link).
Go Rangers.
He is taking Bengie Molina’s old number. This is an outrage.
maybe we can petition to get the video from Bengie’s triple to complete the cycle played before every game – right before the National Anthem
I like it.
Yeah, just add it to the existing video montage with Rogers’ perfect game, Nolan whipping Ventura, etc…
The problem with Prince Fielder at least with me is the fact, he’s never come out and said this is where I want to play. It always seems to be about the Benjamins with him and is agent. Who can pay me the most! Jon Heyman still lists the Rangers, Nationals and of all Teams the Orioles (blech). I see him as a National, but like I said before, he’s never come out and said where he would like to go.
As for Josh Hamilton, I really can’t see him playing anywhere else, I hope he retires a Ranger.
Now that Darvish is officially signed, heck now I am even curious to see how he does in MLB. I want to see if anyone hits .506 off of him! =P
PS Would the Rangers have any interest in trading Michael Young to the Tigers?
If he had only one more year left on his contract, he’d be a great fit. However, he has two. It would be interesting if it did happen.
It’s a lose lose for him then. If he comes out and says where he wants to play, he’ll get labelled a liar once he signs with someone else who offered him the best contract.
at least then he’d be a very rich liar.
He’s going to be rich either way.
no free agent player ever comes out and says where he wants to play. That would defeat the purpose of exploring the free agent market. Thats why you wont hear Prince ever say he wants to play some where until he signs…then it will be” I was hoping for this all along”
Hamilton more than likely will stay a ranger unless he plays 140+ games and wins another MVP then he might price him self out of arlington, but only in terms of years not $$…I could see a 4/60 with 2-3 option years at 15,17,20 each(first 2 being team options 3rd one being a player or vesting) that way if he gets injured its not a crazy amount of money and year and it gives him a solid pay day with a semi team friendly contract(see how christian he really is)
Young has 2 more seaons on his deal ’12 and ’13 at 16 mill a piece..doubt the tigers would want that/ have a place to play him/ want to pay him 16 mill
so from here on out if Rangers win the world series this year do I have the right to say “The rangers bought their world series”
nope, but not for the reasons that you think.
Don’t say its cause im a Yankee fan, and I think I have earned that right since people always say it about us when we win.
i think you should be allowed too. why couldnt you? especially if they end up signing fielder, you would have every right to say they bought their championship. but i doubt theyll sign fielder seeing their trying to stay under the 110 million mark.
with arb raises and darvish they are probably already at or past the 110 mark
How do you suppose the Yankees would do if they had a salary cap in MLB and every team competed on an equal footing?
Well if the Yankees sucked for decades at a time and had draft picks in the top 5 like Tampa Bay did, they could build a competitive team on the cheap, as well. Just because they spend money now means that they wouldn’t be able to survive without it – how does that logic work??? Cashman is a stellar GM, money or no money. And all teams would do as the Yankees do when the money comes flowing in – look at Texas with their new cable funding. Baseball is a business, remember??
You are absolutely correct that baseball is a business. However, the Yankees typically buy the best products of other organizations because their own farm system isn’t producing. If you think Cashman is stellar I would like to see him produce a 90 game winner with a payroll of $50m.
I am not denying yankees buy some talent or anything, but we do have some great players now, and in the past who are home grown/spent their entire career with the yankees..
But this season(not to jynx us like BoSox got jynxd last year) but we are favorites in the AL and all we did was sign one guy to a 1 year contract and trade for another
while… Angels spent big… and now Rangers(IMO) are spending big…
we do have a good farm system … just don’t like that we have a habit of trading it away
I am sure that Friedman would like to be able to spend unlimited amounts so he could get a Fielder to shore up 1st base and get a power hitter along side Longoria. God knows we need a shortstop who can hit over .205. A catcher would be nice too. I guess we will have to compete with pitching and defense again.
He probably could he is one the best gms in the gm
I guess we will never know because he hasn’t had a payroll under $180 million
Most people who know what they are talking about already know.
You are correct. I know that he isn’t.
I guess you dont watch baseball which isnt too surprising considering your a rays fan
At least I can spell
If only this was a site dedicated to spelling and not baseball.
Just fine sir… just fine… seeing as our high paid players didnt play much due to injuries last season (jeter and arod) and we still came out with the best Record in the AL
See Sabathia, Burnett and Teixeira.
see cano, posada, jeter, pettitte, gardner, robertson, hughs, nova … etc etc.. yes some are retired but we won WS with posada pettitte and jeter
Yea, y’all would be just fine if the salary cap were say $300M…..
Y’all? And you accuse me of my grammar.
That is a word here. At least I used proper punctuation lol. 😉
Y’all is a valid contraction of “you all”. Perhaps we should get you a dictionary.
The difference is that we are not far from the league average where the Yankees were spending $100 million more than anybody else when they started their buying of players.
I just mean that you still gotta play all 162 plus the postseason. I’ve always considered the term “buying a world series” a bunch of bravo sierra.
No?
The Yankees 2009 payroll was 202 million, over 50 clear of #2, nearly 70 clear of #3.
They were #1 in 2000 and 1999. By 10% of the next teams payroll.
The Rangers projected $115 million payroll would have been 9th last year. 9th. The majority of the team played in the Texas farm system. Beltre and Darvish are the only big $ acquisitions, 2 guys isn’t exactly crazy.
ok technically add 50m to the rangers payroll for this year (yes I will include the posting fee even though it isn’t counted in a pay roll) then the money they are paying darvish, Yes even though our payroll is high we win without the big names.. A-rod injured, Jeter injured, and Burnett just plain horrible and still had the best record in the AL east …
you cant use the posting fee in your payroll argument because if you do that then you have to include every teams minor league $ in their payroll…posting fee does not count towards payroll plain and simple dont make something up to use in your argument
and you dont win without big names…even with a-rod and jeter injured and Burnett bad you still had CC, Mo, soriano, Granderson, cano, martin, texiera, swisher, …those are some big names there buddy
nope, Minor league pay does not go towards one player… I am using the 50m in my argument because without it… you would not of signed Darvish or even talked to him… without Minor league pay included you still have your major league players
not to mention not everyone on the team was traded for or taken off of FA for example….. Gardner, Jeter, Cano, Nunez, Robertson, Rivera, Nova, Hughes, Chamberlin,cervelli, pena….thats 11 guys who have come up in their system. btw stark you missed josh hamilton sorry to say he was with tampa before his drug problem, Mike Adams, Mark Lowe came up with seattle , Joe Nathan with Houston, Koji Uhehara baltimore, both of their catchers torrealba how ever his name is spelt was with san fran, napoli the angels david murphy was with different teams before the rangers, Nelson cruz came up through the Brewers system. need i say more? so no most of their players were not brought up through the rangers system. its rare to see a team with more players on their team that came up in their system then players they got off the market whether it was trade or FA.
About half of those players you mentioned that didn’t come up with Texas, were struggling until the came to Texas’ minor league system and helped then reach the big leagues. Which is technically the same thing as.
OK and where would NY be without its FA’s and trades exactly so dont tell me its all about home grown with them. Hamilton was originally Ray but was with Reds when he was traded for by Jon Daniels, and yes it really doesnt matter where they come from as long as youre GM is smart enough to collect the right pieces.
He didn’t say that everyone on the team is home grown… he said not everyone is bought… when people talk about the yankees they seem to forget we have a good farm system that everyone is after… and that a lot of our players are home grown… not all… but a lot
Because noone else has injuries. Josh Hamilton, Ian Kinsler, Nelson Cruz, Mike Napoli get injured? Never!
And adding it all to one year is ridiculous, even if its technically paid in one year. It’d be more fair to view it as divided between the 6 years and the Rangers payroll would be in the 124 range, which still isn’t near the top.
However, even adding it all this year (and then massively reducing the Rangers payroll the following years thus making it a 1 year event…) they still wouldn’t be near the Yankees payroll. They’d probably be 3rd behind the Phillies too, possibly 4th.
Besides, its World Series people complain that the Yankees bought, and 52 million over the next team in 2009 is pretty freaking huge.
Yeah Texas management has always spent their money wisely (inject heavy sarcasm) – this taken from an online article on Oct 15, 2011:
Former Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks said his decision to give Alex Rodriguez a record-setting $252 million contract a decade ago was “dumb.”
“I’ve done some smart things,” Hicks told Dallas-CBS affiliate KTVT-TV Channel 11 when asked about Rodriguez now being a Yankee. “I’ve done some dumb things. That was one of the dumb things.
Tom Hicks was a cancer to the Ranger’s organization and just about everything else he touched.
Jon Daniels was atleast able to get the farm system in order while Hicks was burying the franchise with his “dumb” decisions.
What Ranger fans have seen in the last 2 years from Nolan Ryan and the two silent owners Bob Simpson and Ray Davis has allowed this team to become much better. The success on the field combined with internal management has given this team the ability to properly develop its prospect talent, sign key players and free agents, negotiate a better tv contract as well as make significant ballpark improvements this offseason.
This organization will undoubtedly make mistakes trying to maintain its position as a top tier team but from a fans perspective who endured those horrible Hicks years I like what I’m seeing from this new Texas management group. I think the A-Rod deal left a very bad scar on the organization but in a way has proved to be a good thing….this group fights hard to get the deals they want and if it doesn’t make sense then it’s good to know they will walk away from the table.
If they go out and get Fielder you can make a case for it. But not just with Darvish.
How does semi-retiring a number work?
i think the same thing will happen to hamilton that happened to pujols… if an extension isnt dont by spring training.. rangers might as well say bye to hamilton
I am really surprised that no team has signed Fielder this late in the off-season. He is a premium first baseman who is still at a young age, and he is looking for a team. I am guessing it is because most of the big spenders have first basemen locked up. If Prince does not get a fair market contract with the Nationals or another high spender, then boy should he have accepted arbitration and remained a Brewer.
yeah IMO Fielder is a prime piece for any ball club… but as you said most of the big spenders have 1b locked up… He might of thought he was lucky Pujols got such a big contract and it set the bar for him… but IMO it was kind of bad luck Pujols reaching FA the same year as him… maybe Angels would of made a move on Fielder this off season had Pujols not reached free agency..never know
my guess is that the rangers were waiting to resolve this darvish thing now that they have, they will turn their attention to Prince. My guess is teams are waiting to see if the rangers are interested. The true Fielder market will show up in the next few days.
The Rangers are interested, but from what’s been reported on this site a lot of teams would be interested if Fielder was willing to sign for the term the Rangers want.
some see his weight being an issue too. although the contract is the big issue, but his weight prob has alittle to do with it. but his bat would be something every team would want. hell…. wish the yanks would sign him for a year at like 20 million to be the full time DH lol. he then can build his stock up hitting in that stadium as a lefty, but their trying to get their payroll under 189 by 2014 which will prob happen once they get rid of burnetts contract.
So they’re spending 30% more on Darvish than Wilson. Wilson was worth 5 WAR. Darvish will need to be a 6.5+ WAR player or they should have just resigned him.
I agree. I would rather have CJ Wilson and the money to spend on other free agents. Darvish has to overcome 4 versus 5 days between starts, a different physical baseball, vastly more talented hitters which also causes more pitches per inning, language barriers, and being separated from his children as he is getting divorced. There is just a lot of risk there. CJ was 7th is WAR among ALL pitchers last year. That ain’t hay.
The AAV is $1 million more for Yu than CJ and he is 6 years younger and is projected to be an ace. (I said projected so don’t jump on me for that) CJ was a #2 at best. The Rangers did a lot of homework on the guy and feel he is a better investment and we will have him until he is CJ’s age now. The thought if you want to look at it is that the rangers know the cost of trading for a 25 yr old ace caliber pitcher and decided the cash was better than the prospects. We are getting to that point where our young guys are going to start getting expensive and have to decide if we are better off using a stud prospect to fill a void and let some of these guys walk. I like CJ but he left Texas with a really bad taste in our mouths with that post season.
Is semi retiring a number like: I’m going to retire this number but if you comeback you can use it.
I don’t think the Rangers are gonna be in on the Fielder bidding, nor the Cubs or Orioles. It’s gonna come down to the M’s, the Nats & some mystery team. Go M’s!
I dont know why the O”s arent being mentioned for fielder..DD said the market would have to diminish considerably….well!..
Because the Orioles are not rebuilding the franchise , they are destroying it. It doesn’t take 14 years to rebuild a team. They have been looking for the cheapest solutions and then hoping for the best.
Fielder won’t play for them till the end of his careeer . Ala Vlad . After the worst season I can remember , the O’s have had the worst off season I can remember . This year is set up to be a disaster .