The Daily Darvish: Yu wreck me

I come here this morning to report that there is absolutely no news on Yu Darvish.

I had thought perhaps Theo Epstein would troll all of us by announcing he’d signed Darvish — during the Super Bowl. No such luck.

There is this, from Jon Heyman:

The Cubs are still in the mix for Yu Darvish but for now seem to be hoping that Darvish will choose them for reasons that are not economic. The Cubs are a very attractive team/organization and Chicago is a great city so it is entirely possible they win this, but they appeared to be running behind in terms of the offer, quite likely to at least the Brewers.

That’s ... good? Bad? I can’t even tell anymore.

And so, what we have for actual baseball news this morning is the signing of Bartolo, Texas Ranger. That’s right, Bartolo Colon, who will turn 45 in May, has been signed to a minor-league contract with a spring training invitation by the Rangers.

Colon had a pretty good year in 2016 with the Mets, but was pretty bad last year split between the Braves and Twins. Since the Rangers appear to now be out on Darvish, and their starting rotation depth chart seems kind of thin, Colon appears to have a decent chance to make the Rangers Opening Day roster.

Colon was a rookie with the 1997 Indians; one of his teammates was Julio Franco, who made his major-league debut in 1982.

And then there’s this, which now needs two updates (Twins and Rangers):

The Cubs’ first spring training home game, 19 days from now, Saturday, February 24, is against the Rangers. Perhaps we’ll be treated to Bartolo pitching against the Cubs.

Also, while Darvish isn’t likely to return to the Rangers, I thought I’d share with you this cool drawing of him in Rangers garb I found on Twitter:

Today’s song selection: