ARLINGTON, Texas — While the signing of Japanese right-hander Yu Darvish is probable for the Texas Rangers, team president Nolan Ryan didn't sound too concerned about it Thursday night.
Texas has until Wednesday at 4 p.m. to get a deal done with Darvish, who is working out in Japan.
Ryan believes it will happen.
"I'm optimistic we'll get something done," Ryan said at a banquet honoring the 2011 Rangers.
Ryan spent Thursday in Phoenix and hadn't talked with general manager Jon Daniels. Daniels said early in the process that he wasn't going to talk about negotiations.
Ryan wouldn't be surprised if the deal doesn't come until Wednesday with Darvish, who will remain in Japan throughout the negotiation process.
"It's a process," Ryan said. "During the period we negotiate with someone we really don't talk about it. That (going down to the wire) is the nature of these things. We'll just have to see how it works."
Ryan got to meet with Darvish two weeks ago when he was in the Metroplex and liked what he saw.
"Obviously he was bigger than I thought," Ryan said. "He's built like a pitcher. He looks good. He understands a lot of English and I just liked his attitude about wanting to compete. To me he represented what I have been led to believe so I feel real good about him. He has a feel for the breaking ball and has a good fastball. His feel for being able to do things with a baseball is real encouraging."
David Murphy, who could end up being one of Darvish's teammates, has been studying up on his exploits.
"I think everybody's pretty optimistic we'll sign Yu Darvish and hopefully he can bring a lot to this team too," said Murphy, who received the Harold McKinney Good Guy award. "He looks like he's got electric stuff on TV. I guess you can take the normal stereotype of a Japanese pitcher and see that he is kind of an outlier when it comes to size. He's a big guy, about 6-5, 220. He's built like a workhorse. His stuff is great."
