Just prior to today's deadline, the Texas Rangers reached a deal with Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish. The contract will pay Darvish $60 million over the next six seasons (per SI.com).
In addition, the Rangers must now pay the $51.7 posting fee to Darvish's former team, the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters. Both amounts, as well as the $111.7 million total, are records for a Japanese player, surpassing the $103.1 million ($52M salary, $51.1M posting fee) paid by the Boston Red Sox in 2006 for Daisuke Matsuzaka.
If the Rangers are going to get their money's worth, Darvish is going to have to buck a lackluster trend.
With one year remaining on his deal, Dice-K has not been worth the amount of money the Red Sox have invested. In fact, the history of Japanese pitchers making the jump to the United States has been littered with mediocrity.
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