Rangers lose another big guy

[gunnarthor]

After losing Profar for the year, now they have lost a true ace in Yu Darvish.  The three time all star (in three seasons) has avg over 11 k/9 over his career, finished second in the cy young two years ago and probably would have been a top 5 guy again last year but his season was cut short due to injury, ending in early August. Now it looks like he'll have to have TJ surgery. 

[nater79a]

Stick a fork in the Rangers.

[Thrylos]

$110 M for 2.5 good years with another lost and the last 2 iffy.   Quickly this is becoming a very bad investment to the rate of (best case) $24M+ per year of play...

[Brock Beauchamp]

Yikes. I've questioned some of the Rangers' moves over the past few years but this one still stings.

[HitInAPinch]

Wow.  Too bad, he was really something to watch. 

 

GM Daniels said "Darvish could try to pitch through the injury, rest it for up to four months or undergo surgery. Daniels said the club would get a second opinion this weekend but indicated surgery may be the preferred option."

 

I think we've seen it too many times where rest doesn't help on partially torn ligaments.

[nater79a]

Buyer beware when signing any big-name pitcher to long term, big-money contracts. Much preferred to build your staff through the farm system...if you can.

[brvama]

Is this an opportunity to move Pelfrey or Nolasco?

[gunnarthor]

Is this an opportunity to move Pelfrey or Nolasco?

Maybe, but the Rangers aren't in contention this year and do have some young arms as well. 

[Otto von Ballpark]

$110 M for 2.5 good years with another lost and the last 2 iffy. Quickly this is becoming a very bad investment to the rate of (best case) $24M+ per year of play...

What are MLB insurance policies like these days? Didn't the Twins recover much of Nathan's salary in his lost season?

 

Plus, with Darvish's talent and age, I think he will recover pretty well. 2015 may be lost, but I bet he provides good value in performance or trade in 2016-2017.

[kab21]

$110 M for 2.5 good years with another lost and the last 2 iffy.   Quickly this is becoming a very bad investment to the rate of (best case) $24M+ per year of play...

 

That's always a risk.  If you use this argument then you won't sign a pitcher ever.

 

Darvish was absolutely on my DO NOT BUY list for fantasy baseball after last season's injury.  Tanaka is also.  This is also why I think Nolasco will have TJ.

[biggentleben]

That's always a risk.  If you use this argument then you won't sign a pitcher ever.

 

Darvish was absolutely on my DO NOT BUY list for fantasy baseball after last season's injury.  Tanaka is also.  This is also why I think Nolasco will have TJ.

 

I may just not be remembering, but has ANYONE in the last few years rehabbed a partially torn/sprained ligament successfully without surgery?

[nater79a]

Sounds like the Rangers are going to try to replace Darvish from within first. If that doesn't work, I wonder if they won't explore a Cole Hamels trade.

[kab21]

I may just not be remembering, but has ANYONE in the last few years rehabbed a partially torn/sprained ligament successfully without surgery?

The names of I know of but they aren't in the last few years.  Wainwright had a couple of good seasons before needing TJ.  Ervin Santana has pitched about 5 seasons without needing it and is the only successful long term example.  Brett Anderson pitched a season before needing his 2nd surgery.  But that sort of reinforces the point.  There are very few and usually it's just a matter of time.

[Otto von Ballpark]

That's always a risk.  If you use this argument then you won't sign a pitcher ever.

That's what I was going to say too.  The Rangers have still gotten excellent return on Darvish, even if he misses a season to injury and comes back not quite 100% of what he was before.  3 (okay, two and two-thirds) seasons of ace-level pitching, with 2016-2017 still to come, is very valuable.  Even with a crystal ball that foretells this injury, no way are the Rangers better off not signing Darvish in the first place.

 

And I'd argue that big money FA pitchers have actually performed pretty well, overall.  They don't deliver ace-level production every year, but almost nobody does.  The biggest duds are guys that were clearly suspect "aces" to begin with (Zito and Hampton).  Brown was solid overall, Cliff Lee too, even Santana and Sabathia were great for the first half of their deals, etc.  Obviously it is better to develop your own ace, but that's like saying it's better to build your own house for free rather than pay someone else to do it -- it's not always a realistic option.  It is still quite possible to pay someone to be an ace and get fair value.

[Paul Pleiss]

Even if Darvish never throws another pitch for the Rangers I still think it was a great investment for the Rangers. And even if he misses the next season and a half because of TJ he likely returns and provides at minimum league average value. 24/mil a season, as Thrylos suggested, yeah, I'll take that for Darvish.