Last month, the Padres and Yu Darvish agreed to a contract extension. The contract covers 2023-2028. While reading the news about Darvish’s contract extension, I’m thinking about several stats in his career.
Firstly, Yu Darvish has 95 wins in the majors. He earned 16 wins in the 2022 season with the Padres. Without too much doubt, Yu Darvish shall be able to record his 100th win in the majors in 2023. However, Hideo Nomo earned 123 wins in the MLB in 12 years. If Yu Darvish stays healthy, it will be possible to see him surpass Nomo’s 123 wins.
In addition, Yu Darvish already tossed 1488 innings so far in his career. In 2022, he threw 194.2 innings, which is the second most in a single season in his career. By far in his career, he only threw 200+ innings in a single season once. But now, Hideo Nomo is still the leader for innings pitched as a Japanese player. Nomo threw 1976.1 innings in his career, and there were 4 times that he tossed more than 200 innings in a single season. Darvish might need at least 3 seasons to reach Nomo’s record in innings pitched.
Moreover, Yu Darvish already made 242 starts in the MLB. He made 30 starts for the Padres in each of the last 2 seasons. If he continues to make starts consistently, he will reach 300 starts in the majors in 2024. However, he might still need 3 years to reach Hideo Nomo’s record. Nomo made 318 starts in the majors. In Nomo’s MLB career, there were 6 times that he made at least 30 starts in a single season.
Finally, in 2013, Yu Darvish led the majors with 277 strikeouts. By far in his career, he already punched out 1788 batters. Last season, he threw 197 strikeouts. If Yu Darvish stays healthy, we will probably see him reach 2000th strikeout next year. Hideo Nomo punched out 1918 batters in 12 seasons in the majors. Darvish might surpass Nomo’s strikeout record in 2023 and become the strikeout leader of Japanese pitchers.
Yu Darvish has spent 10 seasons in the majors and his career has been good. The Padres decided to sign a 6-year contract extension with Yu Darvish and it shows that the team is confident that Darvish can continue pitching well. With this contract extension, Darvish shall have enough time to surpass some records that Hideo Nomo now currently holds. In particular, he might pass Nomo’s mark in strikeouts soon. Additionally, if Yu Darvish stays healthy, within 2 to 4 years, he will be able to surpass Nomo in several pitching categories. Thus, before the contract comes to an end, Yu Darvish will be a leader in several pitching categories among Japanese pitchers. Nonetheless, Hideo Nomo tossed 16 complete games in the majors and he had 9 shutouts. In the short term, we won’t see any Japanese pitchers reach these milestones. By far, no other Japanese pitchers tossed 10+ complete games in the majors and Yu Darvish only has 2 complete games in his career.
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