When the Los Angeles Dodgers acquired Yu Darvish at the non-waiver trade deadline, it was with the understanding that the right-hander would likely serve as a rental for the club, and not a long-term asset.
Darvish became a free agent at the conclusion of the season and is one of just two premier starting pitchers on the market, along with Jake Arrieta. Both arms are expected to sign two of the largest contracts of the offseason, with values that could exceed nine figures.
Under president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers have opted against dishing out long-term contracts to pitchers on the wrong side of 30. That was evident when the club allowed Zack Greinke to depart for the Arizona Diamondbacks on a record contract two years ago.
But during a media session at the Winter Meetings, Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi revealed that the club was in active discussions with Darvish, per Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
Zaidi said the club still is having active dialogue with Darvish, a free agent.
— Ken Gurnick (@kengurnick) December 12, 2017
In nine regular season starts for the Dodgers, Darvish went 4-3 with a 3.44 ERA, 3.38 FIP and 1.45 WHIP. That was an improvement from his previous with the Texas Rangers, where he struggled with location and posted career-worsts in ERA (4.01), FIP (3.99) and strikeouts per nine (9.7) over 137 innings.
In the National League Division and Championship Series, Darvish yielded just a combined two runs in a pair of starts against the Arizona Diamondbacks and Chicago Cubs, respectively. He earned wins in both contests, before faltering in the World Series.
Darvish logged just 3.1 innings over two starts against the Houston Astros and allowed nine earned runs (eight earned) without recording a strikeout. He was tabbed with losses in Games 3 and 7, and it was later confirmed that he tipped his pitches during the series.
Darvish made it clear earlier this offseason that he hoped to re-sign with the Dodgers. That of course is contingent on how other teams value him and whether they’d be willing to outbid Los Angeles.
