San Diego Padres‘ starter Yu Darvish announced his retirement from Major League Baseball on Saturday, or at least that’s what Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune’s report indicated, but Darvish’s agent refuted that report pretty quickly, saying that “it’s a complicated matter” and one they are still working on.
Update: this was Yu Darvish’s tweet after the recent reports:
“You may have seen an article, and although I am leaning towards voiding the contract, there’s still a lot that has to be talked over with the Padres so the finer details are yet to be decided.
Also I will not be announcing my retirement yet.
Right now I am fully focused on my rehab for my elbow, and if I get to a point where I can throw again, I will start from scratch again to compete.
If once I get to that point I feel I can’t do that, I will announce my retirement.”
Over MLB 13 seasons, Darvish is a five-time All-Star with a career ERA of 3.65 over 297 total starts. He finished second in CY Young voting twice in his career (2013, 2020). Yu Darvish carved out a really successful MLB career and is certainly one of the more notable starters from the 2010s. He should be in consideration for the Hall of Fame down the road.
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Yu Darvish Considering Retiring, but He Will Make Announcement
In 2025, Darvish was limited to just 15 starts due to internal brace surgery on his elbow and posted an ERA of 5.38 in 72 innings. In 2024, Darvish made just 16 starts, also due to injury. The injury from 2025 would have caused Yu Darvish to miss all of 2026, and even possibly some of 2027, so Darvish decided he did not want to have to go through all that rehab to get back to the mound as he’s approaching 40 years old.
Sean M. Haffey/Getty ImagesYu Darvish pitched like an ace for the Padres on Friday night against the Dodgers.
It’s important to note, though, that the last two seasons of Darvish’s career are not emblematic of his entire time with the Padres. In 651 innings with San Diego, Darvish recorded a 3.97 ERA, 683 strikeouts, 3.88 FIP, and 44 pitcher wins.
Yu Darvish’s best numbers came with the Texas Rangers. His best campaign came in 2013, which was the best season of Darvish’s career. He made 32 starts, posted an ERA of 2.83 over 200+ innings, and struck out a league-best 277 batters. Darvish had four seasons of 200+ strikeouts.
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Yu Darvish’s Other Stops Along His Career
Yu Darvish has played with four MLB organizations, and the other two, aside from the Rangers and Padres, were the Dodgers and Cubs.
In 2017, the Dodgers pulled off a blockbuster trade at the trade deadline for Yu Darvish, and then ended up advancing to the World Series because of it. Darvish had been a catalyst of Los Angeles’ Fall Classic run, but he may be more remembered among Dodgers fans for his poor game seven performance against the Astros that season.
He had also been a Chicago Cub for three seasons, and that included one of his “top-2” finishes in the CY Young voting, during the 2020 shortened COVID season.
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Report: Yu Darvish Future Uncertain After Agent Refutes Retirement Announcement