One Day Until Forever

By Mike Luna

 

In just over 24 hours, we will know the fate of the Texas Rangers going forward. It may sound dramatic, but it’s true.

Tomorrow afternoon Yu Darvish will either be a Ranger or he won’t. There is no middle ground. There are no do-overs.

Last week it was being reported by some that Prince Fielder may be hanging back in his own contract negotiations, waiting to see whether the Rangers will have any room in their budget. This depends on what happens with Darvish.

If Yu isn’t signed, Fielder could be the first domino to fall. Roy Oswalt could follow, but I personally doubt it.

When this process began, most people seemed to think that a deal wouldn’t take long to put together. Now a lot of those same people expect it to go down to the wire.

But, gun to my head, I wager that Yu gets himself a deal. It came out this weekend that what was holding things up was a matter of years. Usually a player wants more, but in this case, Yu only wants a 5 year contract, while the Rangers want 6 years.

It makes sense on both sides. Yu is already 25 and likely wants to enter free agency at age 30, instead of age 31. The Rangers, having already invested $51.7MM, want to get the most that they can out of Yu before they’re forced to bid on him again in free agency.

All of it is tricky, but I don’t think this team will let something like this breakdown negotiations. Nolan Ryan and Jon Daniels have already come this far and no one seems to think that they’ll be so petty. We all expect a deal to get done.

If it doesn’t, expect everyone to be surprised and for a lot of virtual ink to be spilled in the coming days. For now, though, we play the waiting game.

Or we can play Hungry Hungry Hippos. That’s a much better game.

Press on, Rangers fans.

(Show me some love on Twitter or visit my website, where you can vote for your favorite Yu Darvish song title parody here.)