When introduced by his new team on Thursday, Yu Darvish said he was surprised by his trade with the San Diego Padres and excited to talk about his time with the Cubs and the ties he created in Chicago.
“With what’s going on with the coronavirus and the money the Cubs have, I didn’t think about being traded,” Darvish said through an interpreter on Thursday. “And besides, they are a winning team and I thought we could compete.”
However, Darvish is excited to join a “strong” Padres team that should compete for the National League pennant.
“I let my kids watch the highlights of the Padres line-up on YouTube,” said the right-hander. “They are a strong team and I am very excited to see the hitters practice.”
Darvish said he has outperformed in his career for the past year and a half. He finished second in the Cy Young pageant last season after going 8-3 with a 2.01 ERA, and attributed his improvement to the decision to slow down and “be himself.”
“The cubs told me to prepare in a way that I wanted to prepare,” Darvish said. The Cubs let me be myself. That helped me get back in shape. ‘
He was traded to San Diego earlier this week along with Victor Caratini, his personal receiver, for starter Zach Davies and four potential clients. The move came a day after the Padres took over lefthanded Blake Snell from the Tampa Bay Rays.
Darvish’s mother once told him she thought he would play for the Padres, but he said she didn’t think that would happen after signing a six-year $ 126 million deal with the Cubs.
However, with Chicago in cost-effective mode, that hunch came true. Darvish hopes to find the same chemistry in his teammates in San Diego as in Chicago.
“Many people [de los Cachorros] he came up to me and they were all pretty shocked and feeling bad, “Darvish said.” So this reality is great. I am excited to play for the Padres. “
Darvish, 34, said he found out about the exchange on Twitter, although his representatives knew there was a possibility it could be changed that day.
“My freshman year at the Padres, I’m going to spring training, I really want to be open and get to know everyone,” said Darvish, who is already in a relationship with Padres general manager AJ Preller from his days at Texas. Rangers.
Darvish was asked what his profession could do for Japanese baseball fans living in San Diego.
“Now that the coronavirus and everyone is a little bit depressed about what’s going on in the world, I just hope to create excitement and make the Japanese around me happy,” Darvish said.