We won’t know anything official until next week, but Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com writes that reports in Japan indicate that the winning bid for Yu Darvish came in around $48 million.
If the $48 million figure proves accurate, it would fall just under the record $51,111,111 sum the Red Sox paid for exclusive negotiating rights with Daisuke Matsuzaka in 2006. They ended up agreeing to a six-year, $52 million contract.
George A. King III of the New York Post reported yesterday that the Blue Jays have the highest bid for Darvish, checking in somewhere between $40-50 million. We’ll have to wait to find out if that’s the case, but the winning team would have 30 days to work out a contract. The 25-year-old right-hander is reportedly seeking a five-year, $75 million deal, which could push the total investment over $120 million for an MLB team.