"If C.J. Wilson wasn't the free-agent pitching catch of the winter, Japanese import Yu Darvish just might be. And interestingly enough, the Texas Rangers, Wilson's former team, have now replaced the former with the latter.

According to ESPNDallas.com's Richard Durrett, Darvish and the Rangers reached an agreement on a six-year, $60 million contract on Wednesday, mere minutes before the 5 p.m. ET deadline to do so. That brings the Rangers' investment in Darvish to $111.7 million; they won his rights back in December for a $51.7 million posting fee, which will now be paid to the Nippon Ham Fighters.

The Rangers' hefty investment in the right-hander makes sense; Rangers general manager Jon Daniels was one of two GMs to travel to Japan to scout Darvish this past summer -- Toronto Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos was the other -- so he clearly holds Darvish in high regard. It was that visit, in fact, that was the impetus for getting Darvish into my midseason keeper top 250 as well as specifically profiled in the final 2011 edition of "60 Feet 6 Inches"; the hints have been dropped for months that he'd make the leap to MLB."