The Chicago Cubs were apparently one of the most aggressive bidders for Yu Darvish's services this winter, but that doesn't mean they came close to landing the Japanese star. As ESPN's Buster Olney reports, the Cubs finished second in bidding for the pitcher's posting fee, but still fell roughly $35 million short of matching the Texas Rangers' bid:
Source: Remember how the Jays were expected to be such big players in the Yu Darvish bidding? Well, one official said that Toronto actually finished third in the bidding, behind the Rangers and Cubs, and that no bid was within $35 million of what Texas tendered.
The Rangers won the bidding for Darvish at a cost of $51.7 million, a figure that surprised many in the industry at the time. Clearly, the rest of the industry didn't regard Darvish as positively as Texas did, considering that no team bid even $20 million to land the pitcher.
Eventually, the Rangers signed Darvish to a $60 million contract, pushing the total financial commitment by Texas to over $111 million. So far, it's hard to argue with the results, as the 25-year-old has a 3.59 ERA with 117 strikeouts and 53 walks over his first 16 starts with the Rangers.
Darvish is a very good pitcher, and the Rangers are presumably quite content with their investment given the massive new revenue that's going to come from the team's upcoming television deal, but you have to imagine that the Cubs' would've passed on him at $111 million for six years considering how far they are from contention.
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