Padres' Yu Darvish Concerned About Opening Day Status, Not Sure How To Proceed

Darvish hopes to start season by pitching 4 innings.

Yu Darvish has finally arrived in Peoria and joined his San Diego Padres teammates fro the last few days of Spring Training. He is coming off a World Baseball Classic Run with Japan that saw him help bring home the championship.

As Japan continued to excel and advance in the tournament, the Padres' coaching staff was paying close attention to the situation that the starting pitcher was in. Even though Darvish was one of the most experienced and season pitchers on Japan's squad, their team had a plan to bring home the gold that did not have the 36-year-old taking the mound nearly as much as he thought.

In his time with his home country's team, he only pitched six innings for a total of 93 throws. I understand completely why he wanted to represent Japan and help them win yet another title but when it comes to getting prepared for the season, this is nowhere near the mound time he needs to be able to open the year for the Padres.

Darvish was very vocal with the Friars during the entire WBC process and made sure they knew that he might not be ready to take on his usual workload right away. When asked about his current status to open up the year on the pitching mound, Darvish kept it real with the help of a translator (per 97.3 The Fan).

Padres starting pitcher Yu Darvish speaks about his plans for building up innings, the unique nature of his spring, and process moving towards Opening Day.

Translation provided by Shingo Horie. pic.twitter.com/hLA1A50L8l

— 97.3 The Fan (@973TheFanSD) March 23, 2023

"A little bit concerning but just because it was a unique, sort of, Spring Training, right now," said Darvish. "Team Japan was trying to win the whole thing and because of those reasons, I wasn't able to build up as I would if I was in a regular Spring Training. So there is a little bit of concern there."

It's very important to keep Darvish's age and contract in mind when looking at this decision he and the team have to make. He just signed a $108 million deal with the franchise that will keep him paid until he is 42. As much firepower as he brings to the squad, it's not worth it to risk his health or performance by throwing him in the first set of games when he isn't ready.

Darvish also he revealed he's going to start with four innings whenever he does suit up and doesn't want to jump to any conclusions.

"I need to talk with the manager and pitching coach and everybody but I'm looking to pitch around four innings, see how I feel, and go from there," said Darvish. "I can't overthink this at this point in time, we'll see how I feel as we move along. Let's just see how it goes."