Report: Rangers Can Afford To Sign Both Prince Fielder And Yu Darvish

The Texas Rangers can afford to sign both free-agent Prince Fielder and Japanese import Yu Darvish, according to Jim Bowden of ESPN.com.

[tweet https://twitter.com/JimBowdenESPNxm/status/158608862113570816 align='center']

It was previously believed that the Rangers, who had won the exclusive negotiating rights to Darvish by committing a $51.7 million posting fee, would only sign Prince Fielder if the team failed to reach a deal with the hurler before the Jan. 18 signing deadline. The Rangers would reportedly like to give Darvish a similar deal to the $52 million contract the Boston Red Sox gave Daisuke Matsuzaka in 2007, meaning in total they would be committing roughly over $100 million on Darvish.

Fielder, the top remaining bat on the market, is believed to be demanding a contract with a value near $200 million. The amount of overall interest in Fielder has been brought into question, however, as the Washington Nationals are considered to be one of the only other remaining teams vying for his services.