Padres May Limit Yu Darvish's Workload in 2025

San Diego Padres right-hander Yu Darvish will begin his 13th Major League season in 2025. The veteran was phenomenal last year, and he is still expected to be a key piece in the Padres starting rotation.

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Last season, Darvish went 7-3 with a 3.31 ERA, 78 strikeouts, and a 1.065 WHIP across 81.2 innings pitched.

There's no telling how long the soon-to-be 39-year-old will continue his career, but the Padres are determined to preserve Darvish as long as possible.

Though Darvish has been quite the workhorse for San Diego, pitching coach Ruben Niebla and manager Mike Shildt have discussed the idea of limiting his pitches and innings in 2025.

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“We’re gonna watch, we’re gonna pay attention, we’re gonna listen to him, we’re gonna watch the metrics,” Niebla said, via Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune. “But Yu is the one guy that you can trust on this more than anybody else. He’s so aware.

"Yu also has a lot of low-effort, less-stress innings (compared to) other pitchers. …. He doesn’t exert a lot of energy through his outings. So it’s not max effort. He conserves energy through the course of a game.”

Darvish's most recent sample of work was during the National League Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The veteran was dominant in his two outings, allowing one run in seven innings during Game 2 and two runs in 6.2 innings in Game 5.

President of baseball operations A.J. Preller said the priority is for Darvish to replicate his stellar performance this October, but that can't happen if the Padres overwork him in the summer. The season is long, and in order to preserve Darvish for the postseason, limiting his workload may be the smartest idea.

“At times for Yu-san, less is more,” Preller said. “And I think for us in terms of understanding, hey, the most important thing is what we saw last year when he was pitching in October. Yu Darvish in October is obviously a very talented and capable pitcher — seeing what he did in L.A. in two starts.

"So I think for us, it’s like understanding that, like, yeah, the World Series isn’t played in April or May. These games are important. But we’re gonna try and do everything we can … to make sure he is as prepared as he can to go perform at a high level.”

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