Baby, It’s Yu

Yu Darvish reportedly signs with the Cubs:

The Chicago Cubs and free-agent ace pitcher Yu Darvish have agreed to a six-year, $126 million deal, a source confirmed to ESPN’s Jesse Rogers.

The deal, which includes an opt-out clause and no-trade protection, contains escalators that could push the value as high as $150 million over the life of the contract, a source confirmed to ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick.

I would expect Darvish to produce about 15.5 WAR over the six-year span of the contract, which would be about $8.1 million per WAR. So unlike the last couple of free agent contracts, the Cubs settled on about where the number should be. Note that he can earn a lot more money if he stays healthy and pitches well.

Note that there seemed to be a lot more competition for Darvish than for some of the other free agents. The Cubs were in need of a starter, and got a good one at a fair price. It could be that the others who signed for a lot less per projected WAR just didn’t generate that much interest. The market has changed, but this contract signifies that teams will still pay top dollar for top talent.

from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2nR2LXl