SAN DIEGO — Yu Darvish, one of the most accomplished Japanese pitchers of all time, said Monday he was unsure if he would play in the major leagues again after a third operation on his right elbow. The San Diego Padres’ veteran starter underwent surgery in late October to repair a torn flexor tendon and ulnar collateral ligament before embarking on a rehabilitation that will sideline Darvish into 2027 and potentially beyond.
“I’m not necessarily thinking about really pitching as I go through this rehab process right now,” Darvish said through interpreter Shingo Horie. “I don’t have that in my mind. I’m just trying to rehab my arm right now.
“And if I get the urge to come back, if I feel that I can stand on the mound and come back, then I will go for that. But I’ll just leave it there for now.”
Darvish, 39, is still owed $46 million over the final three years of a six-year, $108 million contract extension the Padres awarded him in 2023. People close to Darvish have said the pitcher, in recent years, has contemplated retirement while dealing with various injuries. If Darvish ends up going that route, he and the Padres could attempt to negotiate a buyout of the money left on his deal.
Speaking during a charity appearance Monday at Ronald McDonald House San Diego, Darvish said his latest surgery was recommended by doctors in March, after he experienced elbow discomfort that eventually delayed his season debut until July. He logged a career-worst 5.38 ERA across 15 starts before a brief outing in the National League Wild Card Series. Darvish and the Padres later announced that he had undergone UCL repair surgery with an internal brace, as well as flexor tendon repair.
“When you look around the league — and this came from the doctor, also — there are players that pitch under some sort of injury to the arm,” Darvish said. “(Pitching through injury) was kind of the route that I decided to go.
“The flexor muscle was the part that was injured the most, and it needed attention, so we went in there and took care of that. And on top of that, we put the brace on where I had the Tommy John previously.”
Darvish required Tommy John surgery in 2015 while with the Texas Rangers, wiping out his entire season. As a member of the Chicago Cubs, he underwent arthroscopic elbow surgery during an injury-marred 2018 season. In 2023, his season was prematurely ended by a stress reaction in his elbow, and in 2024, Darvish was already on the injured list when he forfeited a significant portion of his salary, voluntarily going on the restricted list while he tended to a private family matter.
He had hoped to be more prolific in 2025. His efforts to pitch through injury this summer included a “drastic” lowering of his arm slot.
“I don’t feel like I was able to really contribute to the team during that time while I wasn’t pitching,” Darvish said. “In my mind, I was thinking that maybe this could be it for me. So, I was kind of, in a way, grinding through the season, trying to get the best out of myself for the team.”
Without offering specifics, Darvish said he had been speaking with Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller about his level of involvement with the club next season. New Padres manager Craig Stammen, a former teammate of Darvish’s, said last week at the Winter Meetings that he expected Darvish would “be around the team a lot.”
“Specifically, (he) and Randy Vásquez have a really tight, close relationship,” Stammen said. “Yu was very instrumental in Randy’s (2025 season), of it getting better as the season went on, with game planning and knowing how to take care of his body. He’s going to be a huge asset for us, not just with Randy, but the entire team, specifically the pitching staff.”
“The work that (Darvish) puts in, how articulate he is and how detailed he is with what he does on a daily basis, he’s going to come back from this injury,” Stammen added. “Whether he and his family decide whether he wants to pitch anymore, that will be up to him, but I know he can do it.”
Preller said last month that Darvish “understands where he’s at in his career, and he understands coming back from another arm surgery. … We’ll keep talking to him about what it means for his next steps.”
A five-time All-Star and two-time Cy Young Award runner-up, Darvish in July established a new record for most combined wins by a Japanese-born pitcher between the majors and Nippon Professional Baseball. Since his big-league debut in 2012, he has compiled a 3.65 ERA and the sixth-most strikeouts among all pitchers.