SAN DIEGO — A day after Yu Darvish returned from a voluntary stay on the restricted list, the veteran pitcher’s longtime agent praised San Diego Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller for his handling of a unique situation.
Reached by The Athletic on Saturday, Joel Wolfe of Wasserman Media Group confirmed that Preller offered to allow Darvish, the owner of a $108 million contract, to remain on the injured list and continue being paid when Darvish took an indefinite leave of absence to tend to a private family matter. Darvish instead made a potentially unprecedented decision to go on the restricted list. Then, for 48 days, he did not collect a salary or major-league service time, saving the Padres about $4 million in the process.
Throughout that time, Wolfe said, Preller kept in touch with Darvish while demonstrating his form of generosity.
“It’s one thing to know a player, but to really take the time to listen and understand and be a true friend … you just don’t see very often that type of personal connection between front office executives and players,” Wolfe said.
Darvish started on Opening Day, supplied a 3.20 ERA in 11 outings and landed on the injured list for a second time this season near the end of May. A little more than a month later, as Darvish continued to rehab an elbow injury, he opted to go on the restricted list. The Padres at the time were 49-43 and in the thick of the National League wild-card race.
“You think about what the natural reaction would be for a general manager when you have a guy who was at the top of your rotation. And everything that he has invested both in the player and his team,” Wolfe said. “And never once, not one time, did (Preller) ever try to apply any pressure to him and make Darvish feel like he was letting anyone down, letting his teammates down, or that he had any sort of obligation.
“And on the flip side of it, A.J. gave Darvish every opportunity in the very beginning to go on the 60-day (injured list), which I think every other player I’ve ever represented would have done. But Darvish said, ‘No, I’m not going to do that,’ because of the promise that he had made to Mr. (Peter) Seidler and A.J. when he signed his contract. He just didn’t feel it was right to collect the money if he wasn’t fully committed to the rehab and coming back. That’s why he placed himself on the restricted list. I’ve never seen that before, either.”
Darvish and Preller first met more than a decade ago. Preller was an executive for the Texas Rangers in 2012 when they signed Darvish out of Japan. The Padres hired Preller as their general manager in 2014, and the two men reunited half a dozen years later when Preller traded for Darvish. They extended their working relationship before the 2023 season, agreeing on a six-year deal that would take Darvish through his 42nd birthday.
Darvish said Friday that, throughout his time on the restricted list, Preller was “very supportive and very understanding and compassionate.”
“The one thing that came through that I realized early on is he knows Darvish much better than anyone in baseball,” Wolfe said. “He’s known him longer even than I have because he met him and got to know him and know everything about him since Darvish was even in high school when A.J. was working for the Rangers.
“I know that’s what Darvish was alluding to. … He really meant it, that there were things that they could talk about that only A.J. would understand. And I’m grateful to A.J. for his support throughout this.”
Preller said Saturday he spoke roughly once a week with Darvish before the pitcher came off the restricted list. Like Wolfe, he could not recall another instance of a player using the restricted list to voluntarily surrender salary. “That was a unique one for me,” Preller said. The executive added that he tried not to bring up baseball during his check-ins with Darvish.
“He’s a guy that’s as committed to the game of baseball and the sport as anybody I’ve seen,” Preller said. “So, for him to need to step away, that’s a pretty serious situation in terms of him not being able to come here and do something that he loves. From my standpoint and everybody, I think, in the organization, we just said, ‘Hey, let’s make sure we’re supporting him off the field and anything he needs there.’
“Most of what we talked about was not baseball-related, but he would always end with, like, ‘Hey, I’m playing catch or I’m staying in shape, you know.’”
Yu Darvish on when he made the decision to return to the Padres and why he thought it was important to go on the Restricted List rather than the IL: pic.twitter.com/VAcVfOdxMp
— 97.3 The Fan (@973TheFanSD) August 23, 2024
Still, Preller said he did not receive any indication that Darvish had made up his mind — whether he would attempt to return or perhaps sit out the rest of 2024 — until this week. Then, on Wednesday, Darvish told him he wanted to return to the team. The Padres coordinated with Wolfe and the commissioner’s office, and Darvish was reinstated from the restricted list Friday. He wasted little time in returning to Petco Park and throwing a bullpen session in front of pitching coach Ruben Niebla. (Players on the restricted list are not permitted to use team facilities.)
Darvish’s timeline for returning to a big-league mound remains unclear. He said Friday he is past his injuries and merely needs to build up his arm, and he is scheduled to face live hitters on Sunday. But he is officially back on the injured list, he has not thrown a pitch for the Padres in three months, and the team is optimistic — not certain — that he will be able to return before October.
Saturday, however, both Preller and Wolfe indicated that they had never banked on a comeback attempt before the end of this season. Wolfe acknowledged that the past several weeks had at least slightly altered his perception of Preller, one of the more polarizing figures in the sport.
“It has changed it some,” Wolfe said. “I’ve always had a good relationship with him, and we’ve done a lot of deals together, both with the Padres and the Rangers, but nothing like this. I just have a ton of respect for how he handled it, and the level of feel he demonstrated on a personal level to help a guy in need.
“I don’t know how this would have played out without that, because it had such an impact on Darvish and his thought process. And without that component, I don’t know where we would be right now.”
(Photo of A.J. Preller and Yu Darvish walking together on Friday at Petco Park: Orlando Ramirez / Getty Images)