Rangers bidding on Darvish over Wilson

Jon Daniels is in somewhat of a strange place right now. The Rangers GM would like to give his in-depth analysis of Yu Darvish and talk about how the 25-year-old right-hander will fit into the future rotation. But it's not in his best interest to do that right now. While it was announced Monday night that the Rangers placed the winning bid for the Japanese pitcher, Daniels and his staff won't see him in a Texas uniform if they fail to negotiate a contract in the next 30 days. "I want to explain to our fans how excited we are to have this opportunity," Daniels said Tuesday morning on the Ben and Skin Show (KESN-FM), "but I can't get too in-depth about it because we've got an active negotiation that we're about to get into. I can't really touch on the details, too much is behind the scenes at this time, but I certainly look forward to when we can." Just to have the ability to negotiate with Darvish, the Rangers bid 51.7 million. However, that extremely large stack of bills only exchanges hands if a contract is agreed upon by the potential staff ace. So why would the Rangers be willing to give up that kind of money to a player that has never pitched a game in the major leagues, yet not out-bid the Anaheim Angels to keep C.J. Wilson? "We communicated, basically to the extent to which we were willing to go to make that happen," Daniels said of the attempt to re-sign Wilson. "It was below what the market was going to bear, we knew that was a possibility, and it didn't work out. I would prefer that C.J. be in Texas, but if he's not going to be in Texas, I'd prefer that he'd be in the National League. He is where he is and it's a great deal for him." Wilson signed a five-year, 77.5 million deal with the Angels earlier this month. Daniels added: "As far as this potential investment, we looked at it completely separately. We kind of turned the page. C.J.'s in Anaheim and I think you got to separate that. It's not necessarily a comparison, it's about what's best for the Rangers today and what's best for the Rangers over the next few years. We felt this was the way to go." Wilson is six years older than Darvish. Did age play a role in which direction the Rangers decided to go? Daniels said: "I think we look at everything and that's certainly a factor we looked at." Follow Jon Machota on Twitter: @jonmachota