MLB Roundup 2/11: Yu Darvish signs with the Cubs

Yu Darvish signs six-year deal with the Cubs

You may want to sit down for this one, but an actual thing happened this winter involving one of, if not the, best free agents on the market this winter. Yu Darvish has been flirting with a couple of National League clubs all winter and the Yankees always loomed as a possibility, but he ended up striking a deal with the Cubs, according to Ken Rosenthal. The deal was originally reported as being worth something “in the $150 million range,” but that turned out to be misleading. The guaranteed money is $126 — or $21 million per year — with incentives that could make the deal worth $150 million. For him to make that much, though, he would have to win multiple Cy Youngs, so. According to Jeff Passan, Darvish does have an opt-out after his second season. So, this certainly seems like less than basically everyone thought Darvish was going to get. It’s true that he is not without risk, but every pitcher free agent has risk and more often than not Darvish is an elite, front-of-the-rotation arm. You’ll hear plenty about his bad World Series, and there’s no denying that he was horrendous, but oddly enough you’ll hear nothing of his two great postseason starts before that. The Cubs now have a fairly loaded rotation in Darvish, Jon Lester, Jose Quintana, Kyle Hendricks and Tyler Chatwood, and will be among the favorites in the National League yet again. As for the Red Sox, they were never realistic contenders to sign Darvish but it is good news that he did not go to the Yankees. #Analysis.

• According to Craig Mish of MLB Newtwork Radio — who by the way has come out of nowhere this winter to kill it on all things Marlins — the Astros and Marlins have had legitimate conversations about a J.T. Realmuto trade. It doesn’t sound like things are particularly close right now, but they have discussed a deal centered around top Astros prospect Kyle Tucker, and Houston didn’t dismiss it out of hand. The last thing we, as a society, need is for the Astros to get a top-level young catcher.