Deadline passes, Rizzo mum on Darvish

The 5 p.m. Eastern time deadline for submitting bids on the Yu Darvish posting has passed, and if the Nationals have bid on the Japanese right-hander, he isn't saying. Appearing this evening on "The Mid-Atlantic Sports Report" on MASN, Rizzo sidestepped a direct question from host Amber Theoharis about whether the Nationals beat the clock with a bid. Just as he told reporters last week at the Winter Meetings when Darvish's posting was announced, Rizzo said it wasn't in the Nationals' interests to divulge whether they had participated in the posting process. While some sources indicate that the Nippon-Ham Fighters could announce the winning bid later tonight or early tomorrow, one of Darvish's representatives appears to have thrown cold water on that notion. In fact, a tweet from Japanese agent Don Nomura indicated that the Fighters could take the full time allotted - four business days - before they respond to the winning, sealed bid. "Bidding time came and gone. MLB send high bid to jpn 4 biz day to respond to the bid then winner announced. Long wait," Nomura tweeted at 5:25 p.m. In an earlier tweet Wednesday, Nomura likened the wait for the bidding process to be completed to "a baby being born." Nomura is known for his role in helping Japanese players get to Major League Baseball. Hideo Nomo, Hideki Irabu and Alfonso Soriano have been among his clients.