{"id":148208,"date":"2026-01-24T21:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T21:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/148208\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T21:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T21:12:10","slug":"padres-pitcher-yu-darvish-set-to-retire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/148208\/","title":{"rendered":"Padres pitcher Yu Darvish set to retire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yu Darvish does not plan to pitch again in the major leagues.<\/p>\n

The 39-year-old right-hander, who has been one of the best starting pitchers of his era, has told the Padres he will retire with three years and $43 million remaining on his contract.<\/p>\n

Darvish underwent surgery in October to repair a torn UCL and flexor tendon in his right elbow. That was after he spent much of last season sidelined, starting just 15 regular season games (72 innings) plus Game 3 of the Padres\u2019 Wild Card Series against the Cubs.<\/p>\n

He said recently that he is focusing on time with his family and making sure his body recovers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way my rehab is going now, I am focused on getting right, not on coming back,\u201d he said late last month. \u201cRight now I\u2019m not really thinking too much about the future. Just knowing the way I think, I\u2019m sure I will one day want to throw again. All I\u2019ve thought about in my life is baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Darvish missed half of the 2024 season due to elbow issues and a personal matter but came back to pitch exceptionally well in the playoffs. When he and Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller spoke after that season, it was with the understanding that Darvish would likely need elbow surgery at some point. Darvish said he made it clear at that time he was considering \u201cgetting rid of\u201d his contract.<\/p>\n

Now, a year later, Darvish and others involved in the process have said some details have to be worked out in terms of how much of the remaining money he will forfeit. But multiple people familiar with the process said any buyout would involve Darvish giving up the bulk of what he would be owed and that the Padres are set to realize a significant savings over the next three years. That money is intended to be used to help make the team better.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as leaving lots of money,\u201d Darvish said in a recent interview, \u201cI look at it as that was never mine to begin with, especially considering the money I haven\u2019t physically earned yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"YuYu Darvish of the San Diego Padres shops for gifts with parents and their children at the Ronald McDonald House on December 15, 2025 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Matt Thomas\/San Diego Padres)<\/p>\n

Even as he contemplated this move, which seemed inevitable for months, Darvish remained a regular presence at Petco Park.<\/p>\n

He sat in on talks with free agents. He attended the news conference announcing Michael King\u2019s contract agreement.<\/p>\n

Those around Darvish say the trust between the pitcher and Preller has impacted every decision Darvish has made, including the one to retire.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d Darvish said recently. \u201cAnd Peter. Especially Peter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peter Seidler was the Padres\u2019 chairman when Darvish was awarded a six-year, $108 million contract in January 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey gave me the contract, and that year everything changed,\u201d Darvish said, referring to Seidler\u2019s death in November 2023. \u201cPeter\u2019s desire was always to win the World Series. I want to do what I can to help that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"YuYu Darvish #11 of the San Diego Padres walks towards the dugout before their game against the Colorado Rockies at Petco Park on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025 in San Diego, California. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

In 115 starts for the Padres, he was 44-37 with a 3.97 ERA.<\/p>\n

On July 30, Darvish won his 204th game between MLB (111) and Japan\u2019s Nippon Professional Baseball Organization (93), becoming the winningest pitcher all-time between the two leagues. He won four more games after that.<\/p>\n

Darvish is a two-time Cy Young Award runner-up, for the Rangers in 2013 and the Cubs in 2020. The Padres acquired him and catcher Victor Caratini on Dec. 28, 2020, in a trade that sent pitcher Zach Davies and four minor-leaguers to the Cubs.<\/p>\n

Darvish, who also pitched for the Dodgers, finished with 115 career wins. That is 13th most in the majors since 2012, his first season after pitching seven seasons for the Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan. His 3.65 ERA is 14th in that span among pitchers with at least 1,500 innings. His 1,778 innings are more than all but 15 other pitchers despite his missing the 2015 season after Tommy John surgery.<\/p>\n

His 2,075 strikeouts rank 44th all-time.<\/p>\n

Darvish dealt with elbow issues each of his five seasons with the Padres.<\/p>\n

Even before spring training in 2025, he acknowledged there was no guarantee he would finish his contract. That potential increased when he was shut down with elbow discomfort in March.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did seriously consider potentially not coming back \u2014 with the injury, as well as with my performance the last couple years not being up to standard,\u201d he said recently. \u201cBut I thought to myself to go all out and treat it as if it was my last time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yu Darvish does not plan to pitch again in the major leagues. The 39-year-old right-hander, who has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,1334,74,76,75,2611,127,1696],"class_list":{"0":"post-148208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-latest-headlines","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-san-diego","11":"tag-san-diego-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego-news","13":"tag-san-diego-padres","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories-sdut"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}