Yu Darvish underwent elbow surgery last Wednesday, he announced today. The San Diego Padre pitcher had internal brace surgery to address a damaged UCL and flexor tendon. He is expected to miss the 2026
season.
This is unfortunate news for Darvish, who had Tommy John surgery in 2015 while he was with the Rangers. While internal brace surgery has a shorter recovery time than Tommy John surgery, it is still a second serious elbow surgery. In addition, Darvish turns 40 next year, and there are inherent concerns about how well a pitcher his age will be able to return from surgery.
Since being traded by the Rangers at the deadline in 2017, Darvish’s career has been somewhat up-and-down. He put up a 3.44 ERA in nine regular season starts post-trade for the Dodgers, as well as two good starts in the playoffs, but was rocked in both appearances against Houston in the World Series, failing to get out of the second inning of either game.
Darvish signed with the Chicago Cubs as a free agent after 2017, but missed most of the 2018 season due to injury. He rebounded with a solid 2019 season and then a great pandemic-shortened 2020 season, which saw him finish second in the National League Cy Young voting. The Cubs traded him to San Diego following 2020, and a down 2021 season was followed by a terrific 2022 season, a down 2023 season, a good, if abbreviated, 2024 season that saw him start just 16 games, and then a bad 2025 season which saw him put up a 5.38 ERA in just 15 starts.
Darvish is currently on a 6 year, $108 million contract with the Padres that runs through 2028.
