REPORT: M’s Talking Yu Darvish

Several media outlets have reported today that the Seattle Mariners have had "internal discussions" about signing Yu Darvish to front their starting rotation.

Signing Darvish would represent a massive "commitment to win now for that team," said one rival AL West GM. Many around the league are hearing that the M’s believe their core of Robinson Cano, Nelson Cruz, Kyle Seager, Felix Hernandez, and Jean Segura — who between them account for nearly $100 million in payroll for 2017 — would be "wasted" if they don’t make a serious push to add another ace to a rotation currently headed by James Paxton and the declining Hernandez: "Look at that club, there are some real pieces to build a winner around at the major league level, and not much in the way of minor league talent to replace them. The time for them to strike is now."

Several local reporters reached out for comment from Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto outside his Seattle office, where he did confirm there is, "interest inside the building."

"We have talked, internally, about what a player like Yu could do for this team and this season. It’s fun to think about, you know, the Seattle Mariners in the playoffs again. That’s a pretty neat thought." Dipoto seemed then to look wistfully past reporters into the distance before adding, "Wow..."

As of now there have been no confirmed meetings between the two sides, and no contract parameters have been discussed, though Dipoto did posit, "But what if we did? Everyone here thinks that would be cool."

"We talk about it all the time in this front office, ‘let’s sign a star pitcher,’ ‘let’s invest in this roster because we’re almost there,’ you know, stuff like that. At the end of the day we’re just fans like everyone else, we like to play armchair GM and talk about ‘what if?’"

When Larry Stone of the Seattle Times reminded Dipoto that he was in fact General Manager of the Seattle Mariners Major League Baseball franchise, Dipoto again seemed to glaze over, before replying, "What if..."

When Darvish’s representatives were reached for comment, Joel Wolfe of Wasserman Media Group responded by saying that he had, in fact, been phoned by Dipoto several times, but that upon answering there would be either a "dial tone," "hushed, muffled voices telling each other to ‘shhhh,’" or "celebrity impersonations," or "impersonations of Yu himself, asking me whether he thought the Mariners liked him as more than a friend."