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Report: the Diamondbacks are prepared to unload the money truck on Yu Darvish

Last month we heard reports that Japanese ace Yu Darvish could be posted this winter (i.e. his current club, Nippon Ham, could make him available to major league teams for a price). Now Patrick Newman of the excellent NPB Tracker passes along word that the Diamondbacks are willing to go as high as $80 million for Darvish.

Some portion of that would probably be the posting fee and some portion of it the actual contract, what with the previous record posting fee being $51.1 million for Daisuke Matsuzaka. With his contract added in, Matsuzaka ended up costing the Sox over $100 million. Figuring that (a) the Diamondbacks aren’t likely to spend like the Sox; and (b) Dice-K ended up being, you know, not worth $100 million, you’d have to assume that the $80 million figure would cover it all.

As for Darvish the pitcher: he’s been worked hard during his professional career. There are some that categorize him as a Dice-K style nibbler. Not sure if that’s just stereotyping -- a Japanese pitcher being a “nibbler” is becoming like a white guy being a “possession receiver” in its cliche value -- but the point is that not everyone is as excited about Darvish today as they were a couple of years ago.

But, hey: nibbler or not, overpriced or not, he would almost certainly constitute an improvement for the Diamondbacks as they try to build their team around starting pitching.