MLB Trade Rumors: Texas Rangers Keeping Yu Darvish?

With a week to go before baseball’s non-waiver trade deadline, rumors have slowed a bit. Yes, teams are still kicking the tires on potential targets, but the wheeling and dealing hasn’t kicked into high gear yet. But a bombshell did drop on Monday afternoon concerning one of the biggest pieces that could be on the market. The Texas Rangers have reportedly shown known no signs they will trade righty Yu Darvish.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have been interested in Darvish, whose contract is up at the end of the season and could be a cheap rental for the postseason. And with Clayton Kershaw on the shelf for up to six weeks, the Dodgers need another starting pitcher badly. Unfortunately for LA, it doesn’t look like the Rangers are inclined to sell.

Darvish has a 6-8 record with a 3.44 ERA, 1.12 WHIP and 143 strikeouts in 133.1 innings over 21 starts. He underwent Tommy John surgery in March of 2015, but has only recently appeared to be back in full form. At 30 years old he has a lot of gas left in the tank.

The problem for teams looking to add Darvish is that the Rangers have won three games in a row and entered Monday just 2.5 games out of the final Wild Card spot. They also look like a group poised to have a big bounce-back in the second half, which means they should be in the playoff hunt until the end.

The Rangers also believe they can re-sign Darvish this offseason, so they have little incentive to trade him. At this point, unless there’s some major change over the next week or so, Texas likely won’t be selling off its biggest chip.