Yu Darvish Rumors: Brewers have made an offer

The Milwaukee Brewers have reportedly made an offer to top free agent pitcher Yu Darvish, as Milwaukee looks to make a serious run in 2018.

The Milwaukee Brewers, who surprised everyone with an impressive 2017, have thrown their hat into the slow-moving Yu Darvish sweepstakes, reports Ken Rosenthal. The Brewers have yet to comment on Darvish formally this offseason, but the Brew Crew are in need some pitching help with staff ace Jimmy Nelson returning from shoulder surgery.

While reports have Nelson ahead of schedule in regards to his 2018 return to the Brewers, adding Darvish not only helps Nelson take his time in returning, it gives the club a true staff ace. Speculation started earlier today when a report from Yahoo Japan saying that Darvish had received an offer from Milwaukee.

But with the report being in Japanese, it was hard to officially say the report was true, until Rosenthal confirmed later. However, with Brewers interest is surprising, but not totally unexpected.

The Brewers did reportedly check in with the Tampa Bay Rays about starter Chris Archer, but the consensus was that the Brewers didn’t have the parts to make the deal work.

The Brewers have also sniffed at other free agent starters Alex Cobb, Lance Lynn, and Arrieta, as mentioned earlier. Darvish would be the third arm the Brewers have added this off-season with Jhoulys Chacin and the return of Yovani Gallardo already in the fold. Adding those three arms to Nelson and some combination of Chase Anderson, Zach Davies, and Brent Suter gives Milwaukee a very deep rotation for 2018.

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Brewers were also involved in some other rumors, involving an ensuing trade, reports ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick. No more details have come out on a possible trade, but if does involve the White Sox, expect players like outfielder Avisail Garcia or first baseman Jose Abreu to be involved. There were also rumblings about a potential deal with the Yankees and involved the Brewers absorbing veteran outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury to allow New York to make a run at Darvish.

Those reports look phony at this point, but the Brewers interest in Darvish, however, is not.