The Padres finally announced their Opening Day roster on Wednesday evening. It more or less finalized a number of already known moves, though the biggest development is that starter Yu Darvish has been placed on the restricted list. Alden González of ESPN first reported that was the plan.
Darvish underwent elbow surgery last November. He won’t pitch at all in 2026. The expectation had been that he’d spend the season on the 60-day injured list. The Padres instead place him on the restricted list, which is for players who are under contract but are unavailable to play for various reasons. The restricted list is best known for its use when a player is suspended, though it’s more commonly briefly used when a player is away from the team for personal matters.
Players on the restricted list do not count against their clubs’ 40-man rosters, though that’s also true for those on the 60-day injured list. The more notable distinction is that teams are not required to pay players while they’re on the restricted list. It isn’t publicly known whether the team will continue paying Darvish any or all of his $15MM salary.
Of course, a team cannot place a player on the restricted list and avoid paying his contract merely because he suffered an injury. There’s surely more to this situation going on behind the scenes. There have been reports dating back to the end of last season about the sides negotiating some way to void the remaining three years on his deal. Darvish provided a statement in January, saying that he has not decided on retirement but confirming that the team, his camp, and the MLB Players Association have had conversations about terminating his contract. There hadn’t been any further updates on his situation until today.
His deal runs through 2028 and contains $43MM in remaining guarantees for his age 39-41 campaigns. The Padres would no doubt love to negotiate some kind of buyout or deferral plan that frees up short-term payroll space and lowers their luxury tax number. González points out that the still unsigned Lucas Giolito would be a sensible target for a team with questions in the back half of the rotation.
In 2024, Darvish agreed to a restricted list placement to attend to a family matter. He had previously been on the injured list at the time. The Padres offered to allow him to remain on the IL but Darvish opted to spend more than a month on the restricted list instead, voluntarily bypassing nearly $4MM in salary (link via Dennis Lin of The Athletic). The pitcher’s agent, Joel Wolfe, praised the team’s handling of the situation while noting that Darvish “just didn’t feel it was right to collect the money if he wasn’t fully committed to the rehab and coming back.”
There’ll presumably be an update from the team and/or Darvish’s representatives before long. The most immediate effect is that he’s off the 40-man roster. That’s a formality but was needed to officially select the contracts of Walker Buehler and Ty France, both of whom made the team last week.
San Diego placed seven more players on the injured list. Infielders Sung-Mun Song and Will Wagner went on the 10-day injured list, as both players are dealing with right oblique strains. Pitchers Jason Adam (recovery from left quad surgery), Griffin Canning (recovery from left Achilles surgery), Bryan Hoeing (flexor surgery), Joe Musgrove (elbow inflammation), Matt Waldron (which the team announced only as “surgery” after being a little more specific in February), and Yuki Matsui (left groin strain) all land on the 15-day injured list.
Adam was the only one of those players who held out hope of making the Opening Day roster. Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune reported on Monday that he’d open on the injured list. It’s mostly to buy time for Adam to continue building up, as he made just two appearances at the end of Spring Training. He should be back sometime in April. In the meantime, this allows the Padres to carry both hard-throwing rookie Bradgley Rodríguez and the out-of-options Ron Marinaccio on the Opening Day roster.
I don’t get why
For fun
read the link to Darvish’s statement that Anthony provided. It’s a good indication of what sort of restructuring of his contract or other agreement between him and the Padres might be in the works. Will have to fly with Players Assoc. Yu is class.
Total funsies! It’s negotiated, Stros. With all that aside, just put Hoeing on the 60 already and maybe snatch a Spring drop for the 40.
Putting his team first over himself. That is class.
Agreed
Too bad it wasn’t sooner when there was actual SP worth paying for. Now Giolito?Maybe the trade market but geez this season isn’t gonna be pretty. Pray for the play offs if that’s your thing
What SP could they have gotten for $16 million would have made their staff better?
probably for a similar reason to Shohei deferring almost all of his contract- so the team can spend money on building a better team now.
Could be family reasons, could be he wants a break from baseball while he ponders another rehab, or he’s doing a modified rehab on his own terms (with the Padres’ blessing).
And shy wait until now?
Probably had to.
Next skipper
Glad they were able to keep Marinaccio and push Rodriguez while holding onto some depth with IL moves. Hart scares me but have to admit he was probably the best innings eater left and another lefty doesn’t hurt while Matsui is out. BP should be positively nutty when Adam is back.
Probably negotiating a a deferral that pays him that 43M over an extended period of time. MLBPA won’t let the Padres pay a penny less than what’s on the contract (as they should) but they probably figuring out how many years they want the spread to be and when to do them.
I’m not sure MLBPA has any say if Darvish/his agent are willing forgoing salary in order to terminate his team obligations early.
So what if the Padres negotiate something where he gets paid basically his contract salary as it stands to work in the front office.
Could that money come off the regular season payroll for salary cap reasons? Could it be another strategy used similarly though not exactly like deferrals. Just a thought.
Yeah they do. I remember when the Rangers were FINALLY trying to get out from under the WORST contract EVER in baseball and worked out a trade to send Rodriguez (A-rod) to the Red Sox. Sox signed, A-rod signed, the commissioner signed but the MLBPA did not because reducing the money owed on the paper COULD have impacted future players’ deals. So instead he moved to 3rd and played for the evil empire. NEVER was so happy to lose a league MVP. Real shame Hix wasn’t also gone. Possibly the worst owner EVER in MLB history.
I think the mlbpa cannot force him to not forfeit money but they are strongly pushing towards players not leaving money on the table basically telling the player that them forfeiting money could hurt other players bargainig power
MLBPA doesn’t have a say in what Darvish decides. He took a $4 million cut in pay to take personal time for family last season. He can take time off from rehab now and void the rest of his contract. That he was placed on the restricted list instead of the 60 day IL and is not being paid this season means it’s a done deal.
MLBOA WILL have some say in this unless Darvish decides to retire. And I could’ve sworn I read in this article that there hasn’t been any decision on what he will be paid, if anything. Where did you see no pay for him this season?
No pay while on restricted list – just a rule
If Darvish does not adhere to the rehab schedule the team doctors have prescribed including showing up at the park every day, he can be placed on the restricted list and not get paid and there is not a thing the MLBPA can say. The Padres placed him on the restricted list which means he will not get paid.
Preller said in the interview they hae on MLB.com that Darvish wants to spend more time with his family and rehab at his own pace.
Enjoy your purchase
These players contracts are so guaranteed the player can’t even walk away and just retire? It’s like Darvish is trying to do the right thing but he’s not allowed.
If a player retires while under contract, they forfeit any remaining salary unless there is an agreement to buyout the contract. Im guessing Darvish is in Japan while the contract states a player must rehab within the padres organization .restricted prevents him from Playing or doing anything with a Japan team.
Darvish’s son plays high school baseball in San Diego.
Yeah, like you’d give up all that money if it was you.
Nobody’s talking about giving up all that money if it was me. Nobody said a word about that. Looks like you’re on your midweek drunk again making no sense.
Don’t know the history leading to that comment but can I get in on that? Opening day and the thought of tossing back a few and drunk posting? Yeah, I’m all over that!
The right thing would be to donate his salary to charity when he doesn’t think he’s earning it, not donate it to billionaires who will more than likely take it to the bank and not raise the payroll a dollar.
I love Yu.
Guess Darvish ain’t ready to retire? Strange to say the least….
I’d love to say it’s a noble choice, but I’ve just never known multi-millionaires with (I’m sure) savvy financial advisors to make such decisions, regardless of their background/nationality/ethnicity/honor.
For me it raises more questions than answers, which I’m sure is the opposite of what Darvish’s camp would like. But it’s certainly good news for the Padres’ bookkeepers.
Giolito would do well in SD
Yu is one of my all time favorite pitchers. I believed in him the whole time in Chicago, especially when Alex Rodriguez and Rick Sutcliffe shat all over him on Sunday Night Baseball for being “weak” when he was actually injured. I’ll never forget that. Enjoy the next phase in life, Good Sir.
Skubal vs. Pivetta tomorrow, Pivetta didn’t have a great spring.
Valdez vs. King Friday night, Framber was dealing in camp. King was throwing meatballs.
Padres get two of the leagues best to start the season.
Going to be interesting to see how the Padres rotation fares in March/April.
It’s going to be interesting to see if the Padres bullpen is adversely affected by the performance of this rotation. I’m glad that at least right now the Padres have some bullpen depth in the system. March and especially April could be taxing days for the Padres bullpen. Good thing Stammen was a reliever himself. You’d think that background would benefit him in these first two months of possible Padres staff volatility. Not to mention Bud Black and Niebla’s assistance.
Should have never extended him and then after 2023 they should have extended him a QO, shook his hand, said “Thank you for your service” and showed him the door.
I have to agree. Granted, the extension happened on Peter Seidler’s watch, but it was completely unnecessary given Darvish’s age at the time. If SD can claw back any of what is still owed to him, it’s a rare bonus. My guess is Darvish announces his retirement soon and leaves the remaining money in the table to walk away with a clear conscience.
Clear conscience? It’s not his fault Preller signed him to the stupid contract. He’s not walking away from any of it, no matter how much you guys want it to happen.
Clear conscience, what? He’s entitled to every cent of that money. I blame nobody but Preller and Seidler for that.
Peter liked him. It wasn’t business, it was personal. Yu seems to know this, and is giving some back. Manny won’t.
Letting personal feelings get in the way of business is no way to run a franchise.
I don’t get foregoing any salary to help a team win, but I respect personal choice. It’s an entertainment business so there’s nothing noble in giving up your pay to the boss. Personally, i wouldn’t my forfeit salary to “help the team”, I’d just donate my paychecks to help the team’s community or something. $15 mil could do a lot of good more than just signing Giolito, who isn’t very good
IRT to the talk about ‘honor’ and stuff, no one knows why Darvish is on the restricted list. He’s out for the year. I seriously doubt SD can suspend him for wanting to rehab in Japan instead of the US.
Until we know the reason for the restricted list, we know nothing.
We know what Darvish has publicly told us, so that’s not nothing. He said he’s going to rehab and that he’s not retiring and he’s open to the idea of eventually restructuring his contract to help the team win. But I generally agree with your point. We can only guess as to the justification for being placed on the restricted list and for what will come next. We’ll find out eventually I suppose. Doubt he rehabs in Japan since his big family lives in SD, son pitches for local university, kids in K-12.
Basically, nothing about this makes sense. Refusing to pay a player is pretty drastic. In 2024, the listed reason was he wanted some family time. Maybe a bit sketchy, but if that was the reason this time, I think both sides would come out and list that as the reason.
I don’t think 2024 was anything more than what Darvish said it was…he left the team to be with family (his close brother in Japan was battling late stage cancer).
I can guess why he was moved to the restricted list and what might happen next, but for whatever the reason, the relationship between Darvish and the team has been one of mutual respect and whatever happens will likely be what Darvish wants. He’s the one in the contractual drivers seat.
So what is Gio’s contract value right now?
It can’t be more than 7-10 mil on a prorated 1 year deal?
He isn’t a savior but SD could use the quality 4 stability that he brings right now.
He is the “best available” option if they can use even 1/2 of Yu’s 2026 salary to pay to Gio I say let’s go.