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Texas Rangers: Is Yu Darvish’s Time Just About Done?

By Alex Al-Kazzaz

ARLINGTON, TX - JULY 09: Yu Darvish
ARLINGTON, TX - JULY 09: Yu Darvish /
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Yu Darvish’s time in Arlington goes all the way back to 2012 when he signed a six-year contract, worth $60 million. The Texas Rangers had 30 days to negotiate with Darvish or he would be returning to Japan. Luckily, the two sides agreed just fifteen minutes before the deadline. No doubt, the signing of Darvish is one of the most exciting signings in franchise history. But is it also one of the best? Good question.

Darvish, 30, is currently in the final year of his contract. However, this season really has not been going well. As a matter of fact, things haven’t been going well since 2015 for him when he went down due to Tommy John Surgery. Darvish himself stated that he wasn’t sure if he would ever be able to pitch again. However, he has come back and since then he’s had many ups and downs but has overall been a decent pitcher for the Texas Rangers.

As of late, Darvish’s presence is quite a mess. Texas is 1-9 in his last starts, with Darvish being 1-6 in these ten starts. In these last ten starts, Darvish has 63 strikeouts, while allowing 30 hits with 55 hits. Unfortunately, Darvish has been denied so much run support from the bats due to the fact that in Darvish’s last ten starts, the offense has 23 runs. However, in his game against the Royals last Sunday, Darvish surpassed Nolan Ryan for most strikeouts in Texas Rangers history. Darvish is currently fourth all-time in strikeouts in franchise history with 943. So we can say that despite the stressful and heartbreaking last ten, Darvish has achieved one big accomplishment.

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In his career, Darvish is 53-38 in 120 starts. As mentioned earlier, his 943 career strikeouts place him fourth all-time in franchise history, just above Nolan Ryan. Furthermore, his career ERA of 3.32 is currently fifth all-time in franchise history. Finally, his 11.03 strikeouts per nine innings are number one in franchise history.

Darvish is a four-time All-Star, as well as the 2013 American League strikeout leader. Furthermore, he holds the record of 1.000 Career Fielding percentage as a pitcher. Not only that but who’ll forget Darvish blasting his first career home run in 2016, becoming the first Japanese-born pitcher to blast a homer for an American League club.

Statistically, Darvish is great. But statistics is not enough. Since Darvish’s arrival in Arlington, the Rangers 2-7 in the playoffs and that includes the 5-1 loss to Baltimore in the Wild Card during Darvish’s rookie season. Darvish is 0-2 in two playoff starts. Let’s be honest, the Rangers haven’t gone anywhere since Darvish has been here. But it’s not his fault at all. He’s not to blame for his injuries because injuries happen and Darvish can’t lead his club to the World Series all on his own. Furthermore, if he’s pitching very well but is not getting run support from the bats, he can’t take the blame for it. In baseball, everyone must do their job in order to win a game.

This season, Darvish is doing a good job of staying healthy and focused. There’s no doubt he wants to stay in Texas and the organization wants to keep him. However, re-signing him to a $100 million deal is not the right decision. But Darvish does deserve to stay. It’s unfortunate that he’s winless in the playoffs and his medical history is a tough pill to swallow.

As far as his time running out, it depends. It depends on whether he’s willing to accept a fair deal of perhaps, two years, $20 million or not. Again, signing him to a massive deal is not worth the risk because there’s absolutely no guarantee of how successful he’ll be in the future.

Next: What Happened To The Rangers In Game Two In Baltimore?

For now, we just have to wait and see how the rest of Darvish’s season plays out.

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