*This content was translated by AI.
Japanese baseball legend Darvish Yu (40, San Diego Padres), who has recently been rumored to retire, will join the World Baseball Classic (WBC) national team. However, he is with the Japanese national team players as a coach, not a player.
Major Japanese mats such as Chunichi Sports and Sponichi Annex reported on the 28th that "Darvish will join the Japanese national team as an advisor and temporary coach."
Darvish plans to join the national team and guide his juniors from the training camp scheduled to be held in Miyazaki, Japan next month. At this meeting, Darvish will advise on pitch clock, pitchcom, and the response strategies of hitters playing in the big leagues. In this tournament, pitch clocks and pitchcoms that are unfamiliar to players playing on the NPB stage will be introduced.
Darvish joined Nippon Ham Fighters in the Japanese professional baseball league (NPB) in 2005 and made his professional debut. In a total of 167 games in the NPB's seven seasons, he recorded 93 wins, 38 losses and a 1.99 ERA. In 2009 and 2023, he participated in the World Baseball Classic (WBC) tournament and played as a starting pitcher representing Japan. In particular, in the 2009 WBC tournament, Lee Bum-ho, the current KIA Tigers coach, was hit with a timely hit.
Darvish entered the major league stage for the Texas Rangers in 2012. While Choo Shin-soo was playing in Texas, he was a teammate. He then played for a total of four clubs, including the Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, and San Diego. I played with Kim Ha-sung in San Diego. He recorded 115 wins, 93 losses and an ERA of 3.65 in 13 major league seasons.
Currently, Park Chan-ho, the "Korean Express," has only nine wins left to record the most wins (124 wins) for Asian pitchers in the Major League. He was named an All-Star five times and became the American League's strikeout king in 2013. In addition, he won the National League's most wins in the 2020 season. In the 2025 season, he was 5-5 with a 5.38 ERA.
Darvish is famous for the so-called 'friendly faction'. It has been known in the past that they enjoy eating Korean food, such as kimchi. He also visited Korea for the MLB Seoul Series in 2024, and at the time, he visited a cafe run by his passionate Korean fan and drew great attention.
Recently, rumors of retirement have been raised. Last month, Japanese media Tokyo Sports quoted an article by the San Diego Union-Tribune, saying, "There were local reports in the United States that Darvish could finally choose to retire." The media also disclosed specific reasons for retirement. "For him in his 21st year as a professional, family is his top priority," the media said. "One of the daily routines Darvish values is playing catch with his son."
Then, Darvish directly refuted the retirement rumor through his social network service. "I'm going to explain briefly because there have been retirement reports about me," he said, adding, "It's right that we've been talking with the San Diego club since last year in the direction of breaking the contract. However, he has not decided to retire yet. "There are many things to agree with the San Diego club, so nothing has been decided yet," he said.
Darvish then said, "I am currently committed to rehabilitating my elbow. If I'm in a state of mind and body to throw the ball again, I want to start all over again. But if there comes a stage where we can't do that, then we will announce our retirement," he said.
Darvish underwent surgery to reconstruct the medial collateral ligament of his right elbow in November last year. As a result, it is impossible to play in the 2026 season. And this time, at the request of Japanese national team coach Hirokazu Ibata, he made a surprise decision to participate in Miyazaki training. Domestic players, excluding major leaguers, will participate in the Miyazaki training. In addition, coach Ibata tried to recruit Darvish to the national team, but the surgery failed. Nevertheless, he extended his hand to join Darvish. This is because Darvish's influence is so great.
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*This content was translated by AI.
