In what has been a slow offseason so far, almost all of the top free agents remain on the market, including Yu Darvish, who is widely considered the best starting pitcher available.
Darvish finished last season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, but with their desire to get below the luxury tax threshold, a reunion between the two sides was thought to be unlikely. It remains that way with less than a month until pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training.
Plenty of other teams have shown interest in Darvish, with the Chicago Cubs, Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees and the Texas Rangers have all being linked to him at various points in the offseason.
It appears another team may have entered the fold, as according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the Milwaukee Brewers made a formal contract offer to Darvish:
Source confirms: #Brewers have made offer to Darvish. First reported: Yahoo Japan.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) January 22, 2018
The amount that the offer is currently unknown, but Darvish was projected to sign a nine-figure contract at the beginning of free agency.
While they hadn’t been linked to Darvish until now, the Brewers have been mentioned in talks with some of the other big-name starters that are also on the free agent market, such as Jake Arrieta.
The Brewers had their best season since 2011 this past year, and with them having a young core in place they may believe that they are a high-caliber starting pitcher like Darvish or Arrieta away from competing in the National League.
Darvish could ultimately be the first of the premiere starters to sign, as it was recently reported that talks with clubs were gaining traction.
With the number of teams showing interest in Darvish, it may be unlikely that the price tag gets low enough for the Dodgers to seriously become involved in discussions.
