RADIO
Yu Darvish 2022 Player Outlook: A Potential Steal, Even At Age 35
3 years agoFrom halfway through 2019 through the 2020 season, you could have made the argument that Darvish was a top-three pitcher in the league. His numbers were right up there with the best of them. That led to an expensive price tag in 2021, which Darvish did not come through on, posting the second-worst ERA of his career (4.22). The underlying numbers were much more encouraging than that, as he posted another strong strikeout rate (29.2%) while keeping the walks well below the league average (6.5%) once again. The long ball did him in, as he gave up a very high mark of 1.52 HR/9 (well above his career average of 1.15 HR/9). His arsenal was as deep as ever (he threw seven pitches 100 or more times), and none of the pitch metrics look significantly different than 2019 and 2020. All of this is reason to be very interested in Darvish in 2022, even at the age of 35. His ADP is brushing up against 100, which could be one of the steals of the draft as the underlying numbers here are painting a pretty picture.
