Yu Darvish San Diego Padres Topps 2023

Farid Yu Darvish Sefat (ダルビッシュ・セファット・ファリード・有, Darubisshu Sefatto Farīdo Yū, born August 16, 1986), more commonly known as Yu Darvish (ダルビッシュ 有), is a Japanese professional baseballpitcher for the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball (MLB). Darvish has also played in MLB for the Texas Rangers, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Chicago Cubs and in Nippon Professional Baseball for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. In international play, Darvish pitched in the 2008 Beijing Olympicsand the 2009 World Baseball Classic as a member of the Japan national baseball team.^[1]  He was considered by many to be the best pitcher in Nippon Professional Baseball prior to his arrival in Major League Baseball in 2012.^[2][3] In his first MLB season, Darvish finished third in the American League (AL) Rookie of the Year balloting. The next season, he finished second in the AL Cy Young Award vote by leading MLB in strikeouts with 277 and finishing fourth in the AL in earned run average(ERA) at 2.83. In April 2014, Darvish reached the 500-strikeout mark in fewer innings pitched than any starting pitcher in MLB history. He pitched in the 2017 World Series for the Dodgers, where his underwhelming performance was later attributed to being a victim of the Houston Astros sign stealing scandal.^[4] He was named an All-Star for the Padres in 2021. Darvish has recorded the most strikeouts by a Japanese-born pitcher in MLB history, and was the first Japanese pitcher to 2,000 MLB strikeouts.^[5]