ARLINGTON, Texas _ The Rangers have made it known that Yu Darvish is available but they want a lot in return.
The trade deadline is Monday so get ready for a rumor and report-filled weekend.
Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal reported Friday morning that Texas is confident it will get a quality return and are "actively exchanging names with teams."
But potential trade partners will have to fork over multiple, highly-regarded prospects to land Darvish and the Rangers' reported offering to deal Darvish could be a way to get a bidding war between clubs to develop.
Darvish is a free agent at the end of the season. Rangers general manager Jon Daniels has said the club would love to resign him and Darvish has said he loves playing and living in Texas. But the free-agent money could be too much for Darvish to turn down in the off-season. So the Rangers, if possible, would be open to seeing if another club will deal some of their top minor league talent. Daniels has said openly that the only way he'd deal Darvish is if he was blown away by an offer.
The Dodgers and Yankees, for example, have been two of the teams rumored to be eying Darvish. Neither are on Darvish's 10-team no-trade list, according to Rosenthal, which is a start. But will the Dodgers part with a couple of their top young prospects such as first baseman/outfielder Cody Bellinger, who has 28 homers for the Dodgers and Triple A outfielder Alex Verdugo? Both bat left-handed are ranked No. 1 and 4 among Dodgers' prospects by Baseball America. The Dodgers' top pitching prospects include right-handers Walker Buehler and Yadier Alvarez, which rank Nos. 1 and 3 in MLB.com's prospect rankings.
Darvish's 10-team no-trade list includes the Orioles, Red Sox, Cubs, Indians, Rockies, White Sox, Tigers, A's, Pirates and Blue Jays.
Darvish, of course, could still approve a trade to one of these clubs.
