After being acquired by the Los Angeles Dodgers at the trade deadline, starting pitcher Yu Darvish shined in the playoffs as he mowed down the Arizona Diamondbacks and Chicago Cubs to help the Dodgers reach their first World Series since 1988.
Darvish struggled in the World Series though, as the Houston Astros roughed him up in both of his starts, including the decisive Game 7 at Dodger Stadium. Despite the World Series struggles, the 31-year-old is now one of the most coveted starting pitchers on the market.
He and Chicago Cubs free agent Jake Arrieta are projected to sign two of the larger contracts this winter. Activity for both has been relatively quiet, however Darvish did recently meet with the Cubs.
Now he set to meet with another one of his postseason opponents in the Astros, via Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball:
The Houston Astros are said by sources to be meeting in Texas with star free agent pitcher Yu Darvish, following by one day the Cubs’ meeting with the right-hander.
The Astros/ interest in Darvish is a bit surprising after they watched him give up a combined nine runs (eight earned) in 3.1 innings against them in the World Series.
But there were reports that the Astros knew Darvish was tipping his pitches, which could be part of the reason that they hit him so well and could easily be fixed if Astros were to sign him.
Adding Darvish would give the Astros arguably the top starting rotation in baseball. It already boasts two Cy Young Award winners in Justin Verlander and Dallas Keuchel.
Although Darvish expressed an interest in re-signing with the Dodgers, that doesn’t appear to be much of a likely scenario. Particularly if Darvish is to sign the type of contract that has widely been expected.
