Yu Darvish Speaks Out After Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto Join Dodgers
The signings of Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, arguably the top two free agents this offseason, had a polarizing effect. Many within the industry joined the Dodgers’ organization and its fans in cheering the concentration of star power in a major market. Others painted the Dodgers as baseball’s new villains.
Love it or hate it, the reunion of the two WBC teammates in Los Angeles is upon us. Yamamoto and Ohtani should help Los Angeles contend for World Series titles for years.
Among the more vocal critics of the signings: San Diego Padres starting pitcher and former Dodger Yu Darvish.
Darvish broke his silence on the signings recently, and he seemed frustrated that the two Japanese players decided to join the Dodgers. His frustration seemed pointed more at his own organization. Specifically, he named Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller in his critique.
San Diego wasn’t a major player in the sweepstakes for either free agent despite Darvish’s plea. After spending their way to baseball’s third-highest payroll in 2023, the Padres needed to cut back in order to align their player payroll with MLB’s debt service rule. Still, for Darvish, it’s understandably difficult to stomach seeing two countrymen head to a direct rival.
If Preller and Darvish spoke about the team going after these two this winter, it’s not a good look on the Padres. Darvish knows first-hand how talented each of these players is, and now he will have to face them until — in theory — the end of his major league career.
Of course, the Dodgers are absolutely ecstatic that they landed the top two free agents on the open market. After sitting out last offseason, L.A. came into this winter with a plan, and they have executed it perfectly so far.
The Dodgers-Padres rivalry should be more interesting going forward in light of Darvish’s comments. The two sides already weren’t the biggest fans of each other, and now the season-opening series in Korea can’t come soon enough.
Photo Credit: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports
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Darvish cost the Dodgers a World Series with 2 poor performances.The Padres have severe financial problems and too many high salaried players given their income stream, which is why they had to surrender Soto.Darvish can be a great pitcher some years but he was not when he was with the Dodgers. Who tend to hit him well. He is signed with the Padres into his old age.
Yu wasn’t that bad for the Dodgers. That year I think they were up 20 games in the west or 20+ games and he pitched well after they traded for him. Then they went on that 17 game slide. Then he pitched ok leading up to the world series. Then Roberts tweaked the rotation to have him pitch in Huston instead of having him pitch in L.A. and that messed it up. Plus the cheating scandal. But I blame Roberts. He should have pulled Kershaw once he gave up those 3 runs in the first inning.
Astros cheated Darvish. He should’ve still been a Dodger. That WS was ours!
Darvish was poor in that World Series because Houston knew what was coming-but he is overrated and deserves to be in San Diego.
You seem to forget that Darvish did well for your team the year you acquired him! You also forgot that the Astros cheated, which made Darvish and Kershaw victims of their cheating. Your team would have won the World Series if the Astros hadn’t cheated .
You seemed to forget that Darvish helped the Dodgers get to the World Series that year! He pitched great all season, including the playoffs, but was rocked in game 3 and 7 due to the Astros sign stealing scandal. They hit Kershaw as bad, if not worse than Darvish! The Astros should have had their championship revoked, and wiped from the record books. They should have had to return their rings and players banned for at least a year if not banned for life like the “White Sox scandal”. Roger, how do you conveniently forget that the Astros cheated, and that Kershaw was rocked just as bad as Darvish, if not worse in his outings? Both are great pitchers when they are not injured.
You are right a out both pitchers being good when they are not hurt! I still can’t believe that the weakass commissioner gave them all a get out of jail card if they came clean about their cheating!!! He should have been fired by the owners. Al Michaels rubbed it in on the NFL game he was broadcasting when the fans started to bang their metal lids. “The Astros are here”
I agree!
Here we go…. Astros cheated lol. OK, but tell me this—Astros won in 7 games right? And one of those games was won in extra innings? So if they cheated and that’s the only reason they won 4 of 7 games then what happened in the other 3 games that the Dodgers won? The Astros forgot to cheat??? Or the “mighty Dodgers” were so good they overcame the cheating??? Your argument that the Astros only won because they cheated sorta collapses on itself. Either they were so stupid to only cheat in some games, go to extra innings and chance losing and go to 7 games and chance losing to make it look good? Or the Dodgers were so good they overcame the cheating in 3 games, then the fact remains they weren’t as mighty as you think if they couldn’t win like 3 more innings outta 65 innings to win a world series…???… Fact is the cheating thing is just you playing the victim. Your team lost, bottom line
Then why cheat if it’s not an advantage?
Darvish and Kershaw got screwed because of the cheating ASStros.
Half right Al B. Astros didn’t steal signs on the road. They had no way to set up their system like they did at home. So that game 7 meltdown was 100% on Darvish. Not a single other Dodgers pitcher game up anything that game including Kershaw who pitched 4 innings.