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Yu Darvish signs six-year, $108 million extension with the Padres

Yu Darvish agreed a six-year, $108 million contract extension with the San Diego Padres in February 2023, tying him to the club through 2028.

11 Nov 2026, 10:471 min read

This summary was written by AI to complete the context; it is not based on a current source.

In early February 2023, pitcher Yu Darvish agreed a six-year, $108 million contract extension with the San Diego Padres. The deal ran through the 2028 season, when he would be 42, and made him one of the long-term pillars of the club's rotation.

Darvish, a Japanese right-hander who began his career in Japan's top league, had joined San Diego in a December 2020 trade from the Chicago Cubs. He finished second in National League Cy Young Award voting in 2020 and was again among the league's better starters in 2022, when the Padres reached the National League Championship Series.

The extension mattered because the Padres were spending heavily to build a contender, and they were committing years of payroll to a pitcher already in his mid-30s. It also set the terms of his future with the club: the contract ran far enough that questions about his age, health and possible retirement would later come with major financial consequences for both sides.