ARLINGTON, Texas, Dec. 20 (UPI) — The Texas Rangers Monday won the bidding for rights to negotiate a contract with Japanese pitching star Yu Darvish, the team announced.

The Rangers have 30 days to reach a deal with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters of the Pacific League or the hurler’s rights will revert to the Japanese team.

Yahoo! Sports reported the winning bid was for $51.7 million.

“Our organization has scouted Mr. Darvish for the last several years and has been very impressed with his abilities and accomplishments,” a statement released by the team said. “We believe he would be a great addition to the Texas Rangers pitching staff.”

The 25-year-old Darvish last season struck out 276 batters in 232 innings and has tossed at least 200 innings in four of the past five years.

The Rangers lost star pitcher C.J. Wilson to free agency when he signed this month with the Los Angeles Angels.

Winter Meetings interview with the Texas Rangers

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The Rangers are playing the Mexico City Red Devils on Tuesday, April 3rd at the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

Q. What is the benefit and purpose of this endeavor?

NOLAN RYAN: We think that anytime we can broaden an opportunity for our fan base we think it’s important and we think that our relationship with the Mexican League is important.
So we just think that it’s kind of a unique opportunity for us to be able to invite them as our guest and give our fans an opportunity to see a team from the Mexican League come and for us to hopefully stimulate some interest in our Spanish community here.

Q. What does this mean for your team to be able to play this game?

ROBERTO MANSUR: (In Spanish.)

Q. Have you ever been to a game to see the Mexican League?

NOLAN RYAN: Only in Spring Training. When I was with the Angels, we went and played in Mexicali. That was the only exposure I’ve had.

Q. How was the experience?

NOLAN RYAN: Well, the fans were very avid. There was a sellout. That was a new stadium at the time. So it was a special event.

Q. What was the genesis of this idea?

NOLAN RYAN: I think probably need to ask Sonny that.

JON DANIELS: Bill McLaughlin works with us and has a good relationship with a number of the teams and Mr. Mansur, his family are very big in the baseball community down there. And over the last few years in our international efforts have tried to grow our relationship in a bunch of areas.

Q. Is this a potential of a working relationship with the Diablos?

JON DANIELS: I don’t think we’ll get ahead of ourselves, but we are working toward a productive, beneficial relationship.

Q. (INAUDIBLE).

JON DANIELS: We scout the Mexican leagues pretty thoroughly already, but this is just a continuation of that relationship.

Q. Ron, what’s your reaction?

RON WASHINGTON: It’s exciting. We are happy to be developing this relationship. And also as Nolan said, it was an opportunity to extend the game of baseball to the Latin community. Diablos has certainly been an organization that we’re very happy to have them come into Texas and be a part of the Texas Rangers family.

JORGE ALUM: We want to translate. We are excited and honored to be here, to be invited to play this exhibition game. We are very excited. We look forward to it and we’re pretty sure that it is going to be the starting of a very long and very good relationship.

The most popular team in Mexico, because of the Mexican players playing was the LA Dodgers. Lately you can see more and more Texas Rangers hats and T shirts and a lot of fans are growing in Mexico. The team there will be very happy for us to come over and play with a very important team right now for us.

Roberto said that even though right now we don’t have a Mexican player playing for the Rangers, he’s optimistic because of the talent of the Mexican players. Pretty soon the Rangers may have one player playing on another team. We’re pretty positive. We’re sure there will be one player playing for the Texas Rangers.

The Texas Rangers announced their seasonal awards and named Michael Young(notes) the 2011 Player of the Year and C.J. Wilson(notes) the Pitcher of the Year. Both are deserving choices but also remain interesting because of behind-the-scenes drama.

Starting with C.J. Wilson, no one deserved the award more than him in 2011. The entire pitching rotation was great this year, finishing with one of the lowest ERA totals in decades. However, Wilson tied for the lead in wins (16, shared with Derek Holland(notes)), had the lowest ERA of the starters (2.94) and the most strikeouts (206).

Of course, this brings up the sore subject with Rangers’ fans that Wilson is on his way out of the organization. Wilson is a homegrown talent, brought up through the minors before earning the job as the Texas closer. He then moved into the starting rotation before finally earning his role as the Rangers’ ace pitcher. Now, he is on his way out to a big free agent money deal.

It makes me wonder if this is the same future we will see for Neftali Feliz(notes).

Michael Young was an even bigger deal. When the season started, Texas did everything in their power to make Young feel like he was no longer wanted. They brought in Adrian Beltre(notes), moving Young to the DH position, the umpteenth time they changed his position over his career. Then they signed Mike Napoli(notes) to share the DH role with Young, making it look like Young no longer had a place on the team.

Michael Young asked to be traded, Texas refused when they found no suitable teams to work with, and it looked like the relationship was strained beyond repair.

However, Michael Young responded with a career-high .338 batting average, with 213 hits, 11 homers and 106 RBIs. He made his seventh trip to the All-Star game as well. The Rangers responded by giving him the Player of the Year honor for the fifth time, tying Juan Gonzalez’s team record.

While I love what Mike Napoli did for the team this year and believe Derek Holland is the new face of this pitching staff, both of these players deserve these honors.

The awards will be handed out at the Dr. Pepper Awards Show in the Arlington Convention Center on January 12, 2012.

Author Shawn S. Lealos has been a Texas Rangers fan his entire life, watching the Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate play for over 30 years. While Texas has moved their Triple-A team, Shawn still remains a loyal Rangers fan and dreams of the year they finally win the big one.

Source: MLB.COM

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

The two-time defending AL champions had discussed moving Feliz into the rotation last spring, but the timing wasn’t right then.

Daniels said being able to sign Nathan made that move easier now. It also would help offset the loss of free-agent starter C.J. Wilson if the left-hander signs elsewhere.

Texas planned to introduce Nathan during a news conference at Rangers Ballpark on Tuesday, the right-hander’s 37th birthday.

Nathan missed the 2010 season following Tommy John surgery on his pitching elbow and struggled to find his form with Minnesota this year. The four-time All-Star went 2-1 with a 4.84 ERA and 14 saves in 48 appearances, losing his job as closer early in the season before reclaiming it later.

He pitched well in the second half, saving 11 games and holding opposing batters to a .207 average while increasing his strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Daniels said Nathan was already in Texas and passed a physical late Monday before the deal was announced. Rangers scouts watched Nathan during the season, noting that his arm strength was back and he was commanding his slider.

“He was free and easy out there,” Daniels said. “And he is an outstanding makeup guy.”

The Rangers informed the hard-throwing Feliz a couple of days ago that he will switch from the bullpen to the rotation.

He joins a rotation that still has returning starters Colby Lewis, Derek Holland, Matt Harrison and Alexi Ogando. Scott Feldman, a 17-game winner in 2009 before right knee surgery, is also a viable option.

Daniels said the Rangers still have interest in re-signing Wilson, but the former closer who won 16 games last season has a lot of options and the team has to be “very realistic.”

Feliz issued a statement through the team from his home in the Dominican Republic saying that he was happy to know the club’s decision this early.

“I have plenty of time to get ready. I have already started running,” Feliz said. “I have time to work on my changeup and all my pitches. I know I have to work hard to be ready to help my team as a starter so we can get back to the playoffs.”

Feliz was a starter through most of his time in the minors with the Rangers before he set a then-major league rookie record with 40 saves in 2010. He had 32 saves this season, but also gave up a two-out, two-run triple to David Freese in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 6 of the World Series. The St. Louis Cardinals went on to win that game in 11 innings, then won Game 7 to deny the Rangers their first World Series title.

Daniels said the blown save in Game 6 had nothing to do with the decision to move Feliz to the rotation. The Rangers were prepared to go into 2012 with the right-hander still closing if not for the opportunity to sign somebody like Nathan.

In 11 major league seasons, Nathan is 49-23 with 261 saves and a 2.87 ERA in 581 games.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

DALLAS – The Texas Rangers are investigating who leaked an audio recording of the clubhouse speech Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington gave to his players before Game 7 of the World Series.

The joesportsfan.com website posted the six-minute recording and said it was made by a member of the clubhouse staff it did not identify. The profanity-filled speech includes Washington encouraging and laughing with his players.

Washington spoke to his team on Oct. 28, the day after the Rangers twice were within a strike of winning their first World Series title before losing Game 6 to the St. Louis Cardinals 10-9 in 11 innings.

The Rangers then lost Game 7 by a score of 6-2.

General manager Jon Daniels says the team is looking into the leak. He says it was a “private moment” for the team and it is “unacceptable” for it to be in public.
 

Ron Washington’s Game 7 Clubhouse Speech from JoeSportsFan.com on Vimeo .

While the rest of the baseball world might have enjoyed listening to Ron Washington’s profane exhortations before Game 7 of the World Series, the Texas Rangers are understandably upset that a tape of that speech was made public on Sunday night.

So much so that the team has launched an investigation aiming to find which employee leaked the recording to Joe Sports Fan. The St. Louis-based sports blog says it received the speech from an unnamed member of the Rangers clubhouse staff.

“It’s unacceptable for this type of thing to be out there,” Rangers general manager Jon Daniels told ESPN Dallas. “It was a private moment for the team, not meant for anyone else’s ears. We’re looking into it, probably won’t have additional comments until we’ve finished that process.”

The six-minute recording also features several Rangers players trying to pump up their teammates for a game they would eventually lose to the St. Louis Cardinals. None of the material is particularly revealing or even embarrassing — it’s simply a pep talk filled with a @!$#-ton of swearing — but you can understand why the Rangers would be rankled. The closed-door clubhouse is supposed to be a place of trust and having one of your own employees threatening the sanctity of their last refuge is a big deal in the baseball world. While it appears the guilty party wouldn’t face any criminal charges under Missouri’s recording laws, you can be sure that he’ll be paying for the leak with his job if and when he’s exposed.

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Related: St. Louis Cardinals, Texas Rangers, 2011 Postseason, 2011 ALCS – Tigers vs. Rangers