, more commonly known as Yu Darvish (ダルビッシュ 有), is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Texas Rangers, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Chicago Cubs, and in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. He also pitched for Japan in several international tournaments, including the 2008 Olympics, 2009 World Baseball Classic (WBC), and 2023 WBC.
Darvish was considered by many to be the best pitcher in Japan prior to his arrival in MLB in 2012. In his first MLB season, Darvish finished third in the American League (AL) Rookie of the Year balloting. The next season, he finished second in the AL Cy Young Award vote, led MLB in strikeouts with 277, and finished fourth in the AL in earned run average (ERA) at 2.83. He pitched in the 2017 World Series for the Dodgers, where his underwhelming performance was later attributed to being a victim of the Houston Astros sign stealing scandal. He signed a six-year contract with the Cubs before the 2018 season and was then traded to the Padres before the 2021 season. He was named an All-Star in 2021. He signed a six-year extension with San Diego in 2023.
Darvish has the most strikeouts by a Japanese-born pitcher in MLB history and was the first Japanese pitcher to 2,000 MLB strikeouts. He has set several career records for striking out batters in relatively few innings.
Early life Darvish was born in Habikino, Osaka, to a Japanese mother, Ikuyo, and Iranian father, Farsad Darvish Sefat. In 1977, Darvish’s father left Iran to attend Berkshire School in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, where he played soccer and raced competitive motocross. Sefat later played soccer at Florida State University and met Ikuyo at Eckerd College.
Darvish began playing baseball in second grade and led his team to the quarterfinals of the national tournament as well as a third-place finish in the international tournament as a member of the Habikino Boys. He was scouted by over 50 high schools while in junior high. He opted to attend in Northern Sendai, a baseball powerhouse that produced players such as former Seattle Mariners and Yokohama BayStars closer Kazuhiro Sasaki and former BayStars and Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Takashi Saito.
High school career Darvish became Tohoku's ace pitcher by the fall of his first year (the equivalent of tenth grade in the United States) and led his team to four straight appearances in national tournaments held at Koshien Stadium in his junior and senior years, twice in the National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament held in the spring and twice in the National High School Baseball Championship in the summer.
Darvish led his team to the finals of the 85th National High School Baseball Championship in the summer of 2003 but gave up four runs to Joso Gakuin High School, the Ibaraki champions, in a complete game loss.
Darvish attracted national attention when he pitched a no-hitter against Kumamoto Technical High School in the first round of the 76th National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament as a senior on March 26, 2004. The team lost in the quarter-finals despite stellar outings by Darvish and sidearmer Kenji Makabe (formerly with Honda Motor Company's industrial league team). Darvish pitched 12 games and put up a 7–3 record with 87 strikeouts in 92 innings pitched and a 1.47 ERA in his four national tournament appearances, and posted a 1.10 ERA for his high school career, striking out 375 in innings (67 appearances).
2004 draft Darvish was scouted by Major League teams, such as the Anaheim Angels and Atlanta Braves, even while in junior high. As he entered his senior year of high school, the Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, and New York Mets had expressed interest in signing him, but Darvish's intent remained to play for a Japanese professional team instead.
Darvish was considered one of the best high school pitchers in the 2004 NPB amateur draft along with Yokohama Senior High School right-hander Hideaki Wakui (later picked by the Seibu Lions) and Akita Municipal Akita Commercial High School right-hander Tsuyoshi Sato (Hiroshima Toyo Carp). While the Fighters, Carp, Chunichi Dragons, Fukuoka Daiei Hawks, and Orix BlueWave all considered selecting Darvish with their first-round pick in the final months, the Fighters were one of the few teams that chose not to forgo the first round in exchange for signing a college or industrial league player prior to the draft. This enabled them to land Darvish with their first-round pick in November 17 draft, signing him to a base salary of , a signing bonus of , and additional performance-based incentives (the equivalent of what a first-round college or industrial league player would normally receive) on December 17.
Professional career
Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (2005–2011)
2005 season Darvish received further publicity when he was caught smoking in a pachinko parlor on an off-day during his first spring training in , despite not being old enough to legally smoke or to gamble at the time. The incident prompted his high school to suspend him, and the Fighters to place him under probation for an indefinite period and order him to participate in community service.
Darvish made his professional debut later that season, taking the mound in an interleague game against the Carp on June 15. He pitched 8 scoreless innings before giving up back-to-back solo home runs in the ninth. He was then removed from the game but earned the win, becoming the 12th pitcher in NPB history to earn a win in one's professional debut as a rookie straight out of high school. He recorded his first complete game win on August 6 against the Lions and his first complete game shutout on September 18, holding the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles to just two hits and becoming the 14th pitcher in NPB history to throw a complete-game shutout as a rookie out of high school. He finished the season with a 5–5 record in 14 starts, throwing innings with an ERA of 3.53.
2006 season Darvish had a breakout year in , compiling a 12–5 record with 115 strikeouts and a 2.89 ERA. The New York Times He went 10–0 after May 30, playing a leading role in the Fighters' first Pacific League title since (his win streak lasted until April 14 of the following season, when it reached 12 consecutive wins) and contributing to their first championship since in the Japan Series over the Dragons. Darvish was chosen to take the hill for the first game of each of the Pacific League playoffs, Japan Series, and the 2006 Asia Series, played between the champions of Japan, China, Taiwan, and South Korea at the end of the season. Darvish, then 20 years old, became the first pitcher to start a Japan Series game since 1987 while under the age of 21, and the fifth pitcher in NPB history to win a Japan Series game at that age with his win in game 5 of the series. He also won the Asia Series Most Valuable Player award.
2007 season
Darvish was named the Fighters' starter for their season opener, becoming the fourth pitcher in franchise history (including the Fighters' years as the Senators and Flyers) to start a season opener within three years of graduating high school (the other three pitchers all started season openers as rookies). He struck out 14 over nine innings in a no-decision in his second start against the Lions on March 30 (the game ended a 2–2 tie in extra innings) and 14 again in a complete game win in his next start against the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks on April 7, becoming the second pitcher in Japanese professional baseball history to strike out 14 or more batters in two consecutive starts.
Darvish went on to post a 15–5 record with a 1.82 ERA (falling just 0.003 points short of the league lead, which went to Chiba Lotte Marines left-hander Yoshihisa Naruse) for the year, limiting hitters to a .174 batting average against and leading the league with 210 strikeouts. He led the Fighters to their second consecutive league title, winning both of his starts in the second round of the Climax Series (playoffs) against the Marines.
Darvish took the mound in game 1 of the Japan Series that followed on October 27 against the Dragons for the second straight year, pitching a 13-strikeout, complete game win in an intense pitchers' duel with then-Dragons ace Kenshin Kawakami and becoming the third pitcher in Japan Series history to strike out 13 or more batters in a single game. With the Fighters down 3–1 and facing elimination, Darvish started game 5 on November 1 and held the Dragons to one run over seven innings while striking out 11. However, the Fighters had no answer for opposing right-hander Daisuke Yamai and closer Hitoki Iwase, failing to get a single man on base and allowing the first perfect game in Japan Series history. (However, the game was not an official perfect game according to NPB regulations, which state that a perfect game must be thrown by a single pitcher.) The Dragons won the game 1–0, charging Darvish with the loss and becoming Japan Series champions. The 24 strikeouts that Darvish totaled in his two starts were the second-highest by any single pitcher in series history (and the highest in a series that went only five games).
Darvish was presented with both his first career Eiji Sawamura Award (being the first to meet or exceed guidelines for the award in all seven categories in 14 years) and his first Most Valuable Player award following the season. He also won the Golden Glove and Best Nine awards that year.
Darvish made his national team debut in the 2007 Asian Baseball Championship (which also functioned as the Asian qualifying tournament for the 2008 Beijing Olympics) against Chinese Taipei on December 3, 2007. Because Japanese law requires that a person holding dual citizenship choose a single nationality before their twenty-second birthday, Darvish had chosen to retain his Japanese citizenship so that he could play for the national team in the Olympics.
On December 22, Darvish re-signed with the Nippon-Ham Fighters for plus payment at piece rates, up from 2006. At 21 years old, Darvish became the youngest player in Japanese baseball history to reach the mark.
2008 season In , Darvish was named the Fighters' starter in the season opener for the second consecutive year, pitching a complete game shutout in that very game (the Fighters won 1–0). Even as his team struggled in the opening months of the season, Darvish continued to rack up wins at a pace that exceeded his own in the previous season. As the year went on, he and Eagles ace Hisashi Iwakuma emerged as the league leaders in both wins and ERA. On April 10, in their only match-up of the season, neither gave up a single hit through the first five innings. Iwakuma went the distance, throwing just 100 pitches and giving up just one run on three hits; yet Darvish topped this, throwing another complete-game shutout on three hits and just 95 pitches in one of the best pitchers' duels of the season.