UPDATE: BenCher Says Sox Unlikely To Bid On Darvish—More Conflict With LL?In an interview this morning on WEEI 93.7 FM, the always crafty Larry Lucchino seemed to leave the door open to the possibility of the Sox pursuing Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish. It was announced today that Darvish will in fact be posted by his Nippon Ham Fighter team and be open to bidding by all 30 MLB teams. Darvish has been praised by Bobby Valentine as the best pitcher he has ever seen—high praise considering Bobby had Nolan Ryan on his staff in Texas.
Lucchino was asked if "hypothetically" the Red Sox would participate in the posting process for another Japanese pitcher. He certainly did not throw any cold water on the possibility by saying that Valentine is the only manager who can speak "fluent conversational Japanese". He also said he would not "rule out" the Red Sox joining in another posting process. Boston posted the winning $51.1 million bid to the Seibu Lions for Daisuke Matsuzaka (they then spent $52 million more to sign Dice-K).
While it's never possible to tell exactly what Larry L. means, we can read be tween the lines and assume the Red Sox will be players for the right-hander. Darvish is 6' 5" and 185 pounds and just 25 years old. He went 18-6 with a 1.44 ERA and 276 strikeouts in 2011 for the Nippon Ham Fighters. Of course, a number of factors have historically hindered Japanese pitchers when they come to The Show—a bigger baseball, five days rest instead of four, and the simple fact of facing much better hitters. Maybe this will be the one big splash the Red Sox make this off-season.