Yu Darvish.
Last week, the Post reported that the Blue Jays were the favorites to win the rights to negotiate with Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish, and that they’d submitted a monster bid of more than $40 million and possibly close to $50 million. But we now know that whatever Toronto bid, it wasn’t enough: Major League Baseball announced last night that the Rangers placed the highest bid for Darvish, and now have 30 days to sign him. The winning bid? A reported $51.7 million — more than the $51,111,111.11 the Red Sox paid to negotiate with Daisuke Matsuzaka in 2006. As for the Yankees, their bid was reportedly modest, so their chances of winning the negotiating rights appeared slim all along. [NYT]