According to George A. King III of the New York Post, the Toronto Blue Jays are the proverbial favorites to land Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish. According to King, the Blue Jays’ bid was in the $40 – $50 million range. The Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters (greatest team name ever) have until Tuesday at 5:00 pm EST to accept the bid.

On top of the $40 – $50 posting fee, the Blue Jays would then have to negotiate a contract with Darvish. He is seeking a five-year, $75 million deal. All told, the Blue Jays could be paying somewhere in the neighborhood of $125 million for Darvish.

That’s a lot of boxes of ziti to pay someone who has never thrown a pitch in the Major Leagues. It’s even more risky considering the track record of Japanese pitchers in the Major Leagues.

However, I think this is a good calculated risk for Toronto. They need to do something. Toronto is a team with a ton of potential, but are stuck in that 81-to-85 win mode. That will won’t be good enough to win the American League for the foreseeable future.

Sure they can wait until after the 2012 season and maybe make a run at Zack Greinke or Matt Cain, but A. Maybe the Milwaukee Brewers or San Francisco Giants sign those two pitchers to extensions or B. Is signing Greinke to a five-year, $85 million contract just as risky as taking a chance on Darvish? I think it is.

Darvish is available now and all he will cost the Blue Jays is money, which is something they have. No trading of prospects like they would have done for Gio Gonzalez is necessary.

If everything works out with Darvish, the Blue Jays will have a rotation of Ricky Romero, Brandon Morrow, Darvish, Brett Cecil, and Henderson Alvarez. You take those starters and couple them with an offense that has a ton of potential, that second Wild Card spot in the AL is looking like a real possibility.

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By The Baseball Index