The Brewers reportedly made a contract offer to right-hander Yu Darvish, according to multiple reports out of Japan and the United States. Darvish, who is one of the top starters on the free-agent market, seems to have confirmed the report when he retweeted Yahoo! Japan’s story on the offer Sunday.
— ダルビッシュ有(Yu Darvish) (@faridyu) January 22, 2018
The Brewers now join six teams who are in the hunt for Darvish, who was 10-12 with a 3.86 ERA last season for the Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Dodgers. Other teams interested include the Cubs, Twins, Yankees, Astros and Rangers.
The Cubs are still looking to add to their rotation after signing right-hander Tyler Chatwood in December. The Sun-Times reported in December that Cubs president Theo Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer met with Darvish in Dallas.
If Darvish decides to sign with another team, the Cubs still have a chance to resign Jake Arrieta — that is if the former Cy Young award winner is willing to drop his price tag.
Arrieta is looking for a six-year, mega-deal, but that doesn’t seem realistic for the 31-year-old pitcher whose numbers have been sliding the last two seasons. And the market isn’t helping Arrieta either. The historically slow-moving offseason might force some of the free-agents — who remain unsigned despite being one month away from spring training — to lower their asking price.
When asked in October about signing a big-ticket free agent, Epstein told the Sun-Times, “It’s not our preferred method.
“We prefer to make a small deal and find Jake Arrieta. But you can’t do that every year, either.”
The Cubs reportedly made a move on Alex Cobb, but the right-hander shut them down. The team offered Cobb a three-year, $42 million deal, but he turned that down, according to David Kaplan.
With spring training around the corner, the missing piece of the Cubs’ rotation is still unknown.
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