Yu Darvish: Ace Pitcher Does Rangers Favor Asking for Five-Year Contract

Yu Darvish and the Texas Rangers are approaching  in their negotiations. The two sides have until Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. EST to get a contract done. Darvish is going to sign—I would bet money on that—but the question is how many years will he sign for?

According to Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports, the length of the deal is actually the biggest hurdle in the negotiations right now. Darvish wants a five-year contract to reach free agency when he is 30 years old, and the Rangers want him to sign a similar deal to what Daisuke Matsuzaka got from Boston:

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Not only would he reach free agency a year earlier, he would reap market-value free agent dollars instead of the below-market contract Texas is offering. Because the Rangers placed a $51.7 million bid to his Japanese team strictly for the right to negotiate with Darvish, the deal they’re pushing—similar to the six-year, $52 million deal the Boston Red Sox gave Daisuke Matsuzaka, according to a source—is far less than he would stand to earn in free agency.

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Frankly speaking, Darvish is doing the Rangers a favor only asking for a five-year contract. I know that he has No. 1 starter upside and is just 25, but long-term deals for pitchers rarely work out for the team.

It is important to remember that with all the hype surrounding Darvish, he has never pitched in a major league game, has already thrown 1,268.1 innings in Japan and is used to pitching once a week instead of every five days.

Everything that I have seen and read about Darvish suggests that he will be a top-of-the-rotation starter in Major League Baseball.

Any comparisons to Matsuzaka are without merit, because Darvish has a better pitcher's body at 6'5" and 185 pounds, and he has a better understanding of how to pitch. He will move his pitches around, while Matsuzaka got in trouble because he tried to nibble on the corners.

Still, giving any pitcher six guaranteed years is a huge risk and one that could blow up in Nolan Ryan's face. The Rangers should be jumping at the opportunity to sign him to a five-year contract, because there is less risk involved, both in time and money committed.

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