Yu Darvish: 4 Reasons He's a Perfect Fit for New York Yankees

The speculation is over: Yu Darvish is coming to America, and the only question now is where he'll land.

Some in baseball view the Texas Rangers as favorites to land the Japanese ace, and Yankees GM Brian Cashman has been noncommittal in his public comments. Here's hoping Cashman is just playing opossum, because Darvish is a perfect fit for the pinstripes. 

Here's why ...

The Yankees Need Another Impact Arm

As he has so many times since he took over as Yankees GM, Brian Cashman finds himself with a very good team that still managed to fall short of its ultimate goal—a World Series championship.

In the divisional series against Detroit this year, the Yankees lost games by scores of 5-3, 5-4 and 3-2. You might look at those numbers and say the New York offense was to blame for the early winter, but an equal case can be made that the pitching was to blame.

Beyond CC Sabathia, who had a lackluster postseason himself, the Yankees didn't have anyone to shut down Detroit. And in a short playoff series, there's always a chance your offense—even an offense as high-powered as New York's—won't show up.

So the Yankees NEED a second shutdown starter. A guy they can count on to put up zeros in October if the offense struggles in the cold weather. 

Right now, New York has the same exact staff as last year. We're hearing the Yankee brass trumpet Hector Noesi's stats in winter ball and Phil Hughes' new offseason training regiment.

Can you feel the excitement??

I'm all for giving those guys another chance to make an impact on the rotation, but it's wishful thinking to believe either is ready to form a lockdown one-two punch with Sabathia.

Darvish has that kind of potential, and if adding him to the mix prevents another A.J. Burnett postseason start, all the better.

He's Better Than Irabu, Igawa and Matsuzaka

Last season a 24 year-old Yu Darvish was 18-6 with a 1.44 ERA and 0.83 WHIP for the Nippon Ham Fighters. He struck out 276 batters and walked 36 in 232 innings, while touching the high 90s with his fastball. 

Okay, okay—the NPB isn't exactly the AL East, but you have to admit those numbers are impressive.

For comparison's sake Kei Igawa was 14-9 with a 2.97 ERA and 194 Ks in 209 innings in the NPB the year before the Yankees signed him. The year before THAT, Kei was 13-9 with a 3.86 ERA in Japan.

Daisuke Matsuzaka was 17-3 with a 2.13 ERA and 200 Ks in 186.1 innings the year before he signed with Boston. But that was something of a comeback year for Dice-K. He missed significant parts of the 2002 and 2004 NPB seasons due to injury, and had only posted an ERA below 2.50 twice in his eight-year Japanese career.

Hideki Irabu isn't much of a comparison either. Like Darvish, Irabu was a power pitcher in Japan, but Irabu didn't come to America until he was 28, already on the downside for most fastball-dominant pitchers (just ask Ubaldo Jimenez). 

Irabu also never had an ERA below 2.40 in Japan. In fewer years, Darvish has accomplished that feat four times.

Darvish is a 6'5'' flamethrower in his prime. Simply put, he's younger, healthier and more skilled than any other big-name Japanese import before him. 

It's Only Money

Over the last several seasons, Brian Cashman has shown an annoying capacity to misjudge his prospects.

The Yankees held onto hyped pitchers Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain, only to see both flounder in the big leagues. Meanwhile Ian Kennedy was dealt to Arizona. 

Sure the Yankees got Curtis Granderson back for Kennedy, but wouldn't you rather have Kennedy AND Granderson now? Chances are the Diamondbacks would have taken Chamberlain (at the time the more highly regarded prospect) in that deal.

This year, when rumors about a trade for Jair Jurrjens surfaced, we heard the Yankees weren't willing to part with young starters Manny Banuelos and Dellin Betances, or even utility infielder Eduardo Nunez.

Sure, all could develop into All-Stars, but the odds are against it.

Most talent evaluators see Betances as a late-inning reliever and Nunez as an average middle infielder.

We can't part with these guys to get a marquee starter?

If Cashman won't part with any prospects, Yankee fans can probably forget about blockbuster deals for Felix Hernandez or Gio Gonzalez.

And now that C.J. Wilson is in Los Angeles, the only name out there with top-of-the-rotation potential who won't cost any prospects is Yu Darvish.

Why not roll the dice?

The Yankees are well worth more than a billion dollars, and after this year the new CBA makes it more difficult to buy up high-ceiling international talent. This is the year to make a splash with an international talent who could make the difference in October.

He's a Good Fit for NYC

As you may or may not know, Yu Darvish is only half Japanese. His father, Farsad Darvishsefad, is Iranian. His parents actually met while both were going to college in America.

So culturally, Darvish is already part-Iranian, part-Japanese and part-American. It's an international outlook that should be familiar to most New Yorkers and help him feel at home in the city that never sleeps.

Here's what Yahoo's Jeff Passan wrote about Darvish in 2008:

"In a country with a black-and-white attitude, Darvish is the color, the entertainment, the rebel, the wild side, the kind of character Major League Baseball loves, and people here nonetheless revere him for it. He wears his cap with a slight tilt to the left and his smile the same, the establishment his to mock. While boldness is generally frowned upon, Darvish is an exception, almost beyond reproach, in spite of his demeanor, his background and his follies."

We're often told that foreign athletes have a hard time adjusting to American life, and as Yankee fans we KNOW how difficult it is for some athletes to deal with the New York pressure cooker. But reading that paragraph, it's easy to imagine Darvish thriving under the bright lights.

He's certainly already more cosmopolitan than A.J. Burnett, Kenny Rodgers, Carl Pavano or any of the other American free-agent hurlers who couldn't hack it in the Bronx. Besides, we heard the same cultural concerns about Ichiro and Hideki Matsui. If you have the talent, you can play anywhere in the world.