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Washington. Last Thursday, when Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish announced his intention to pitch in the United States, a question that Major League Baseball had considered in the abstract became bracingly real.

Teams had scouted and scrutinized him for years. Now, they had less than a week to answer the question: How much is Yu Darvish worth?

The Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, Darvish’s Japanese professional team, made Darvish available via the posting system, in which teams bid for the right to negotiate with a player. Teams had until Wednesday to submit their bids. The winning team then has 30 days to strike a deal with Darvish, or else he stays in Japan and his team keeps the fee.

By Wednesday night or, at the latest, Thursday morning, MLB will announce which team won the right to cut the Fighters a check and start dreaming about how Darvish, widely regarded as the best pitcher in the world not currently pitching in the majors, would look in their rotation.

Between the posting fee and the contract, the total financial commitment to acquire Darvish will likely end up between $110 million and $140 million. As much as half that money likely would be dedicated to the posting fee.

“If you bid $30 to 50 million, you’re not really being serious,” said Ira Stevens, who runs the Asian baseball scouting service ScoutDragon.com. “If you really want to win the bid, you’re bidding $50 million or more.”

The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, typically the sport’s biggest spenders, will likely stay on the sidelines, in part because of harsher punishments for surpassing the luxury tax threshold.

The Toronto Blue Jays and the Texas Rangers are considered the biggest threats to land Darvish. Both teams have extensive international scouting operations.

The St. Louis Cardinals could be a Darvish dark horse. They have the $200 million they did not spend to re-sign Albert Pujols, and bringing in Darvish would flip their 2012 narrative: They would be the team that got Darvish, not the one that lost Pujols.

Darvish, the son of an Iranian father and a Japanese mother, has become, at 25, an icon in Japan. He has finished every season for the past five years with an ERA of 1.88 or lower. Last year, Darvish struck out 10.7 batters per nine innings and walked 1.4, and he punched up a 1.44 ERA. He throws his darting fastball in the mid-90s and has been clocked at 98 mph.

The natural starting point of comparison for Darvish is the other Japanese pitchers who have made the transition, with Daisuke Matsuzaka of the Red Sox being the most high-profile. Darvish, though, is bigger, throws harder and produced more dominant statistics than any Japanese pitcher before him.

“He’s 6-foot-5. He weighs 225 pounds. He’s a man. He’s done a lot to make his body big and strong,” said a scout who’s watched Darvish for years. “I don’t think he’s going to have a whole lot of trouble. There’s just too much ability.”

The Washington Post