You have to take every Heyman/Boras rumor with a grain of salt, though I don't see how the info he's provided would actually be putting pressure on, say, the Brewers.
Darvish was probably just never interested in coming here, and he was going to get a six-year deal. But sure, it's a shame, he was younger, almost certainly better going forward, and didn't come with a comp pick. But now the market is coming to the Phillies, hopefully. And as much as they are into analytics they are also into intangibles that can be, if not quantified, at least documented. Which is to say the front office's familarity with Arrieta's personality and work ethic counts for something (even if the flip side of that is you can make a mistake more easily if you're blinded by a pre-existing relationship).
He is certainly going to get four years. That's gonna be the price of admission for the Phillies to land him, barring an outrageous AAV or bonus. If they can avoid five it's a win.
And the ironic thing about dead money/sunk cost is that you're better off with a hurt pitcher than an ineffective one, 'cause you can't just keep trotting out the former, and if you have enough money, you replace him (even Amaro's Phillies did that once, albeit badly, by signing Burnett).
For all we know this rumor is also a message from the Phillies to Cobb or Lynn.
