The Cubs agreed to terms with Yu Darvish on a contract of 6 yrs/$126 M. Davish was MLBTR's top rated FA for this cycle. This deal equals MLBTR's predicted length but is well under the $160 M total dollar amount, although the deal reportedly has incentives that potentially bring it up to $150 M.
As much as some people have moaned about collusion and falling FA values, this is a pretty sweet deal for a guy who missed 2015 and part of 2016 with TJ surgery and is coming off a 3.86 ERA season capped by stinking out The Latrine in the World Series, which is not a easy feat. Still, I'd probably rather give a contract like this to Darvish than to Jake Arrieta. Darvish joins Jon Lester, Jose Quintana, Kyle Hendricks and Tyler Chatwood to make a very solid starting rotation for the Cubs in 2018. The contract is likely to be very bad by the time it is done, but is for tomorrow to worry about. At this point, the Cubs bullpen appears to be their weak link for 2018 but they still have time to fix that too.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This signing has to make the Cubbies the clear favorites in the NL Central. The Brewers haven't improved their pitching enough, while the Cardinals made a nice move getting Ozuna, hard to see them as a serious contender to the Cubs, but both should be wild card contenders.
ReplyDeleteLG
NL Central will be interesting. The Cards are a very broad in the ceiling/floor potentials. The Cubs are stacked, but they sure didn't act like it most of last year. And the Brewers... Hard to size them up.
ReplyDeleteCubbies up, Brewers down, but the Giants season may be made in the first month, opening with 7 Dodger games and 3 with Arizona with 2 days off plus 2-game home opener with the Mariners.
ReplyDelete10 games in 13 days with 2 rivals for a playoff slot, followed by 7 games in 8 days with Padres and AZ again!
Is that enough?
No, the month ends with 3 each with the Nationals and the Dodgers again before starting a Padre series.
Ten Dodger games between March 29 and April 29!
The first "half" finishes with 7 games with the Cardinals and Cubs going into a series with the A's before the ASG.
If we are still "in it" by September:
3 with Mets (starting August 31)
6 with Rox around
3 with Mil and 3 with Atl
6 with SD around
3 with StL then finishing at home with
3 agin LA
No one said it will be easy!
Not easy but it should be interesting around the all-star break given how the G's perform during the tough run of games early in the season.
ReplyDeletei think the brewers will counter with arrieta or lynn and i think it's likely that matheny will be fired after this season
ReplyDelete