Yu Darvish Opens Up on Potential Retirement With Padres

The San Diego Padres were given new life this offseason in the month of February.

With radio silence for most of the winter, Padres fans were starting to get concerned with what the roster would look like come spring. Hopelessly watching while other giants of the league retooled their rosters, questions swirled about what 2025 would look like.

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However, 93 regular season wins is nothing to bat an eye about. And after coming within two runs of knocking out the eventual World Series champions in the NLDS, San Diego wasn't desperate by any means after October. But there were a few glaring holes that needed to be addressed.

The recent signings of southpaw Kyle Hart — who is coming off a Cy Young equivalent-winning season in the Korean Baseball Organization — and right-hander Nick Pivetta put San Diego's rotation over the top. One of the veteran anchors in the pitching room, Yu Darvish, recently spoke on his baseball mortality and what it could mean for the near future.

Darvish will be 39 in August, and is currently signed through 2028, but recently told The San Diego Union-Tribune's Kevin Acee that nothing is guaranteed in his pitching future.

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“Each year, I just focus to play baseball,” Darvish said. “If I feel like I can’t play baseball anymore, then I’m done playing.”

Darvish is by no means slowing down, coming off a 3.31 ERA season over 81.2 innings pitched. However, he does understand that he isn't getting any younger, and wasn't ready to confirm that he would play through his age-42 season, the final year he's under contract.

Fellow starting pitcher Michael King thinks Darvish has a long future ahead of him, though.

“His attention to detail is probably the thing that is allowing him to pitch this late in his career,” fellow starter Michael King said. “But he’s like a freak athlete combined with that. He pays so much attention to everybody else around him, and he’s constantly learning, and then he’s in the weight room doing, like, very, very specific exercises that he knows is gonna get his body ready."

Darvish continued, citing his seven children as a potential factor if he doesn't play out the rest of his contract.

“I have a lot of kids,” he said. “So I have to see what are we doing now, where are we at and balance with the baseball.”

While Darvish is by no means ready to retire, he's making it known that he'll let his body tell him when he should be done.

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