{"id":643740,"date":"2026-03-26T02:03:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T02:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/643740\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T02:03:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T02:03:22","slug":"yu-darvish-goes-on-restricted-list-in-possible-padres-payroll-boon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/643740\/","title":{"rendered":"Yu Darvish goes on restricted list in possible Padres payroll boon"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Padres\u2019 Yu Darvish is headed to the restricted list.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The move could free up payroll for the salary-crunched franchise as players on MLB\u2019s restricted list are generally not entitled to salary.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Japanese star will miss the entire 2026 season after undergoing elbow ligament repair surgery in November<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He is owed $15 million this season as part of the three years and $43 million left on the six-year, $108 million extension he signed with San Diego in 2023.<\/p>\n

\"ASan Diego Padres starting pitcher Yu Darvish (11) pitches in the first inning on Sunday, May 28, 2023 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, NY. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n

Earlier this offseason, Darvish reportedly told the Padres that he was retiring, leaving his big contract on the table.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Darvish\u2019s agent, Joel Wolfe, quickly refuted that claim, telling MLB.com\u2019s Mark Feinsand that his client\u2019s days in the majors might not actually be over.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Darvish would shoot down the retirement rumor<\/a> a short time later.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou may have seen an article, and although I am leaning towards voiding the contract, there\u2019s still a lot that has to be talked over with the Padres so the finer details are yet to be decided,\u201d he wrote on X. \u201cAlso I will not be announcing my retirement yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight 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\u2019t do that, I will announce my retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"YuYu Darvish of the San Diego Padres throws a pitch in the second inning against the Chicago Cubs in game three of the National League Wild Card Series at Wrigley Field on October 2, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. Getty Images<\/p>\n

A month after his latest surgery, Darvish, 39, indicated that he might never play in the big leagues.<\/p>\n

In December, Darvish appeared uncertain if he would pitch again in the majors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not necessarily thinking about really pitching, as I go through this rehab process right now,\u201d Darvish said, per MLB.com. \u201cI don\u2019t have that in my mind. I\u2019m just trying to just rehab my arm right now. If I get the urge to come back, if I feel that I can stand on the mound and come back, then I will go for that. But I\u2019ll just leave it there for now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Darvish was limited by injuries in 2025 and didn\u2019t debut until early July after dealing with elbow inflammation during the first half, tossing 72 innings and going 5-5 with a 5.38 ERA and 68 strikeouts across 15 starts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Padres\u2019 Yu Darvish is headed to the restricted list.\u00a0 The move could free up payroll for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2407],"tags":[5,4,43,137,18,4339,4338,185,1536],"class_list":{"0":"post-643740","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego-padres","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-padres","11":"tag-san-diego","12":"tag-san-diego-padres","13":"tag-sandiego","14":"tag-sandiegopadres","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-yu-darvish"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116293024220595010","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}