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After going back and forth (and back and forth and back and forth) about whether they will trade Yu Darvish before the trade deadline, the Rangers have finally decided that they will indeed ship him out of town.
As FOX’s Ken Rosenthal reports, Texas is letting teams know this is now the case and is beginning to receive offers for its ace. The Rangers are 18 games back from the division lead and 4 1/2 games back from the second wild card slot. So yes, it’s time to trade Darvish.
Darvish will be a rental for whichever team gets him, but he’ll be a rental that is worth it based on recent performances (Wednesday night’s 10 earned runs in 3 2/3 innings pitching notwithstanding).
Multiple teams have already made public their desire to have Darvish on their team, including the Astros, Dodgers, Cubs, Yankees, Brewers, and Nationals. The leader of the pack has been changing faster than you can say “we need pitching,” but now that Darvish’s status is confirmed, get ready for a fast and furious feeding frenzy from all those teams — and maybe even a surprise entrant.
In five years with the Rangers, Darvish has started 122 games with 960 strikeouts and a 3.42 ERA. This season, he has a fair-to-good 115 ERA+ and 4.01 ERA so will be a help to whichever contender lands him in the next few days.