As I’ve said countless times, the Yankees have been skating by with a hodge podge rotation and frankly we’re lucky that it has held together to this point. The other day Bartolo Colon reminded us again why he’s more than a serviceable #2 pitcher with a dominant 7.0 IP, 2 ER outing against the Athletics. Freddy Garcia has posted some unexpected great numbers, despite his peripherals and FIP being almost identical to those he had last year.
However, the fact that either of the two have made it to this point can be considered nothing short of a miracle, and if they can make it all the way through the season and perform well in the post-season it will be even more of a miracle. With the fact that we have been lucky, let me ask you this: What are we going to do next year? Maybe Colon continues throwing darts and maybe Freddy keeps getting lucky. But who’s to say they even stay with the Yankees if they’re still healthy? I’m not going to even get started on the question marks. I think I’ve made my point. Next year’s rotation is going to need a big addition. So who?
Well C.J. Wilson is an option, but we can’t place all of our hopes in a converted reliever with 1.5 successful seasons under his belt, especially since we can’t guarantee we will sign him. There are the Killer B’s, Banuelos and Betances (sorry Brackman, get your ERA under 7 and we’ll talk…), but both have had troublesome command issues this season. There’s no reason to panic and give up on them, it’s just part of their development, but it shows that they are not ready to carry a rotation and there is no guarantee that both can perform exceptionally at the Major League level.And as everyone, including myself, has suggested we could put together a package for Ubaldo Jimenez who would help for a few years, but the price is even higher than I predicted (they’re asking for Montero, Banuelos, Betances, and Nova) and it would ultimately be a deal we’d regret.
And then there’s Yu Darvish: 2x NPB MVP, 2x NPB ERA leader, 2x strikeout leader, and indisputable best pitcher in all of Japan.
Yu Darvish will be a hot commodity if he is auctioned off to the highest bidder, which is very likely for the 6’5” right hander. Through just over 5 years in the NPB, he has compiled a 75-32 to go with a 2.12 ERA. Since 2007, he has not recorded an ERA over 2.00 (2007-2010 ERA is 1.81), his WHIP has been under 1 in all but one season (2010), his BB/9 has been at worst an excellent 2.2, and his K/9 is consistently over or just under 9. He has pitched over 200 innings in every one of those seasons except 2009, and has pitched an absurd 40 complete games from 2007-2010. Mind you the Japanese season is shorter, so he’s had only 98 starts…and 9 of those were shutouts…. Wow.
If you need any more convincing, he’s having a career year with a 1.44 ERA and a 13-2 record (stats subject to inaccuracy, they’re difficult to find). He’s only 24 years old, and about to enter the 27-31 year age prime that is typical of ball players. He’s the Felix Hernandez of Japan.
Numbers only mean so much, so here’s a video to show you just what he can do:
Now to explain what he’s doing: Darvish has a mind blowing arsenal of 7 pitches, all of them nasty. He has a 4 seam fastball that sits from 91-94 and tops out at 97 (hit 100 once), a 2-seam/shuuto with heavy movement, a changeup, a splitter, a slurve, a curveball, and a cutter. Unlike many Japanese pitchers he does not have a particularly violent pitching motion, so health isn’t a huge concern.
Needless to say, if Darvish is available to MLB teams, every team in the league with any room on their payroll is going to be all over him. However at the risk of sounding entitled: we’re the New York Yankees, when it’s a bidding war, we get it if we want it. One could point out how we failed to sign Cliff Lee last offseason, but that wasn’t a bidding war, it was the man’s preference. Trying to get a player from Japan is essentially nothing more than a rich man’s auction, everyone interested gives their highest bid and if they win, they win.
Kei Igawa’s horrific contract expires after this season ($4 million), Jorge will likely retire ($13 million), and we failed to sign Cliff Lee ($23 million-$14 million for Soriano=$9 million). That’s $26 million open on the payroll, not to mention the Steinbrenner’s can always dig deeper in their pockets. The Yanks have a lot of money clearing off the payroll next offseason, and they will undoubtedly have the money to win the bidding war for Yu Darvish and sign him to a big contract.The Yankees are the clear frontrunners in the Darvish sweepstakes, but there are a few reasons we could fail to even get him. First off, the failure of Kei Igawa may leave a bad taste in the organization’s mouth. It’s safe to say that Igawa is no Darvish though, even before coming to the U.S. he was clearly declining and the Yankees signed him as nothing more than a response to the Red Sox winning the Matsuzaka bidding war. Second, there’s never a guarantee that a Japanese player will sign with us, even if we win the “auction.” Personally, I think we have a better chance of getting him than not getting him if he becomes available prior to the 2012 season. In yet another off-season which lacks big name free agent starting pitchers, Yu Darvish could be just the deadly arm the Yankees are looking for.
--Grant Cederquist, BYB Staff Writer
--Jeana Bellezza, BYB Associate Editor
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