Padres GM Preller says Yu Darvish went on restricted list to rehab from surgery at his own pace

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Yu Darvish is beginning the season on the San Diego Padres ' restricted list because the veteran right-hander wants to proceed deliberately in his recovery from elbow surgery while he contemplates his future, general manager A.J. Preller said.

Preller praised Darvish's decision for its benefits to the team and its fans Thursday while he spoke in the dugout before opening day at Petco Park. But the GM also indicated the move doesn't necessarily mean he'll have more money to pursue another pitcher for the Padres' seemingly thin rotation.

"Yu Darvish is a very special person, a very special player," Preller said. "He's very unique. This situation is unique. Somebody that's thinking about the good of the organization, the team, the fan base. Wanting to get back, but you can't put your heart into it, it would be very easy for him just to say, 'You know what? I'm going to sit on the IL,' and what that means for him from a compensation standpoint. He's not doing that. He knows that his heart's not quite into it, but he's going to continue with the rehab process, and maybe we get to next year and he's feeling in a different place and he wants to come back."

Preller said the Padres had planned for this unusual move throughout the offseason, and it was finalized over the past several weeks in conversation with the commissioner's office and the players' union.

While on the restricted list, the 39-year-old Darvish doesn't receive his salary - a condition that few major leaguers would accept voluntarily. Darvish was owed $43 million for the final three seasons of a $108 million, six-year contract: $15 million in 2026 and $14 million each in 2027 and 2028.

But Preller said the five-time All-Star from Japan cared more about being able to spend extra time with his family instead of participating in the daily grind of rehab work in San Diego.

Darvish isn't definitely ready to retire, but he also isn't quite certain he wants to go through the lengthy rehab grind required by a second major elbow surgery. He had Tommy John surgery in 2015.

"He's been very straight-up throughout the offseason, after the surgery," Preller said. "Just ultimately, he's not really in a place to work at the level and ability that he wants to work at and he's accustomed to working at. He wants to kind of do it at his pace. ... Just a great deal of respect for what he's trying to do. I think he's been very clear that if he can't do things at the level from a preparation standpoint that he's used to doing, he wants to make sure that he's giving back to the team and the fan base."

Darvish won't pitch at all in 2026, but Preller couldn't definitively say how long Darvish will spend on the restricted list.

Preller appeared to gently discourage the notion among Padres fans that the move could clear up payroll room for San Diego to sign one of the top remaining free-agent starting pitchers on the market, saying he had been aware of the likelihood of this move "throughout the whole offseason."

"In terms of the planning for it, it doesn't really change anything from our end," Preller added.

Opening day starter Nick Pivetta and Michael King top the Padres' rotation, but Joe Musgrove is starting the season on the injured list with right elbow inflammation after his own return from Tommy John surgery went slower than hoped.

"Not really putting a time frame on it," Preller said of Musgrove's return. "He's just starting to play catch today. I know talking to him (Wednesday), he said he's feeling great. It's not like he's been down for six to eight weeks, so hopefully he can get going here. But we're not going to know until he gets through days like today. ... We'll know a lot more in the next week to 10 days."

The rest of San Diego's rotation currently appears to be spring signees Walker Buehler and Germán Márquez alongside Randy Vásquez.