"The Texas Rangers and Japanese superstar right-handed pitcher Yu Darvish reached an agreement for a six-year contract this evening, reportedly worth $60 million. Combined with the $51.7 million the Rangers bid through the posting system in order to win the rights to negotiate with Darvish, Texas paid more than $111 million to acquire him.

The ripple effect for the Nationals comes in relation to Prince Fielder. With the Darvish negotiation settled, the Rangers can fully turn their focus to their approach to Fielder, which should give agent Scott Boras at least a small amount of leverage with his talks with Nationals ownership regarding Fielder, the elite slugging first baseman who has remained in free agency longer than many imagined. "