Over the next few weeks RealGMBaseball will be holding our 2014 Major League Baseball ‘Be The GM’ Contest to determine which player would be the best selection to build a franchise around.

The contest, which is being brought to you by the Original Retro Brand, is described and previewed here: RealGM’s 2014 ‘Be The GM’ Contest. You’ll want to check out the link for rules on how to enter to win a $50 Retro Brand gift card and to see the full contest schedule.

Yu Darvish of the Texas Rangers and Robinson Cano of the Seattle Mariners are featured in Wednesday’s matchup. Voting will extend through the end of the first round.

Before there was Masahiro Tanaka, there was Yu Darvish. He signed with the Rangers, leaving the Nippon Ham Fighters, for $60 million over six years prior to the 2012 season and was immediately effective. Eight starts into his third Major League season, the right-hander is 32-20 with a 3.22 ERA, 1.162 WHIP and 563 strikeouts in 69 appearances (455.1 innings).

Darvish, an All-Star in both his full seasons, led baseball with an average of 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings in 2013. He ranked tenth among American League pitchers in WAR (3.9) in his rookie season and moved up to fifth (5.8 WAR) last year. As he continues to get comfortable in the United States, Darvish has seen his ERA decrease each season from 3.90 to 2.83 to 2.32 over 54.1 innings in 2014.

Cano was the prize of this past winter's free agent class, signing a huge ten-year, $240 million deal with the Mariners after spending his first nine seasons with the New York Yankees. In close to 6,000 plate appearances with the Yankees, Cano hit .309/.355/.501 with 204 home runs and 822 RBIs.

The second baseman won a World Series with New York in 2009, but in 51 playoff games Cano had a slash line of .222/.267/.419.. The five-time All-Star is 18th among active players in WAR (46.0) and ranked among the top five AL players in the metric in four of his nine full seasons.

He famously plays so smooth on the field that his effort is questioned, but Cano has flirted with elite defense at second (in terms of defensive WAR and total zone runs and fielding percentage) throughout his career.

Vote In This Matchup: Darvish or Cano?

Previous Matchups:

May 19: Gray or Hernandez?

May 16: Springer or Trout?

May 14: Perez or Gibson?

May 12: Kipnis or Cabrera?

May 9: Lawrie or Sale?

May 7: Tanaka or Longoria?

May 5: Machado or Bogaerts?

Next Matchup: May 23 – Freddie Freeman vs. Jose Fernandez

Don’t forget to Tweet your pick along with #BeTheGM to be entered to win a $50 Retro Brand gift card.