Category: Sports News

The Padres’ Yu Darvish is headed to the restricted list. 

The move could free up payroll for the salary-crunched franchise as players on MLB’s restricted list are generally not entitled to salary. 

The Japanese star will miss the entire 2026 season after undergoing elbow ligament repair surgery in November. 

He is owed $15 million this season as part of the three years and $43 million left on the six-year, $108 million extension he signed with San Diego in 2023.

Earlier this offseason, Darvish reportedly told the Padres that he was retiring, leaving his big contract on the table. 

Darvish’s agent, Joel Wolfe, quickly refuted that claim, telling MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand that his client’s days in the majors might not actually be over. 

Darvish would shoot down the retirement rumor a short time later. 

“You may have seen an article, and although I am leaning towards voiding the contract, there’s still a lot that has to be talked over with the Padres so the finer details are yet to be decided,” he wrote on X. “Also I will not be announcing my retirement yet.

“Right now I am fully focused on my rehab for my elbow, and if I get to a point where I can throw again, I will start from scratch again to compete. If once I get to that point I feel I can’t do that, I will announce my retirement.”

A month after his latest surgery, Darvish, 39, indicated that he might never play in the big leagues.

In December, Darvish appeared uncertain if he would pitch again in the majors. 

“I’m not necessarily thinking about really pitching, as I go through this rehab process right now,” Darvish said, per MLB.com. “I don’t have that in my mind. I’m just trying to just rehab my arm right now. If I get the urge to come back, if I feel that I can stand on the mound and come back, then I will go for that. But I’ll just leave it there for now.”

Darvish was limited by injuries in 2025 and didn’t debut until early July after dealing with elbow inflammation during the first half, tossing 72 innings and going 5-5 with a 5.38 ERA and 68 strikeouts across 15 starts.

The Mets begin their 2026 campaign as they take on the Pittsburgh Pirates in their Opening Day game on Thursday at 1:15 p.m. on NBC/Peacock.

Here's what to know about the game and how to watch...

Mets Notes

• Freddy Peraltacontinues the trend of varying Opening Day starters for the Mets. Peralta will be the fifth straight different pitcher to start Opening Day for the Amazin's, the last repeat starter being Jacob deGrom from 2019-21. 
• Peralta pitched on Opening Day for the Brewers in 2025. He allowed two runs on four hits across five innings against the Yankees.
• Carson Benge will start in right field on Thursday. The Mets' No. 2 prospect won the job after having a very good spring, where he slashed .366/.435/.439 with an OPS of .874. 
• Paul Skenes will take the mound for the Pirates and has had success against the Mets in his short career. Skenes is 1-0 with a 2.08 ERA and 14 strikeouts across two career starts against the Mets.

Today's Lineups

How can I watch Mets vs. Pirates online?

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Freddy Peralta will take the mound for Opening Day on Thursday, a significant honor for his official welcome to the Mets and Citi Field.

Barring something unforeseen, though, the nod will not be paired with an extension that would have opened up the possibility for more Opening Day privileges.

Peralta and the Mets are taking their will-they-won’t-they dance into the regular season. During Wednesday’s workout in Queens, both Peralta and president of baseball operations David Stearns declined comment concerning the possibility of an extension for a two-time All-Star pitcher whom the Mets acquired for a significant prospect package ahead of his walk year.

Peralta, for his part, smiled when giving his latest “no comment,” a persistent wink that has led to some speculation that the two could be working on a new pact.

Stearns clearly likes Peralta — he has acquired him twice, first with the Brewers, after which Stearns and Peralta agreed to a five-year extension in 2020 — and was willing to send top 100 prospects Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat to Milwaukee to bring in what the team hopes is its new ace.

Stearns also does not go deep with many starting pitchers — Sean Manaea’s three-year deal is Stearns’ longest with the Mets — and the 29-year-old Peralta presents an interesting case. He has been as reliable as any starter the past three years, each of which he turned in at least 30 starts while owning a 3.40 ERA.

And for a team whose clubhouse was suspect last season, Peralta arrived with a sparkling reputation that has only been strengthened.

“It’s a big smile, it’s authenticity, it’s love of baseball, appreciation for his teammates, support of his teammates,” Stearns said, “and we’ve seen all of that over the last six, seven weeks in camp.

“And we’re also going to see a really good competitor when he takes the mound. I think that’s sort of the trick with Freddy. He can be this genuine, positive individual, and then when he takes the mound in front of 45,000 people, he’s as competitive as anybody. It’s a lot of fun to watch.”

Peralta has been excited about pitching and living in New York, where the Dominican Republic native has plenty of family, and has been happy with his first months with the club, where “we are all on the same page here. We are all connected,” he said.

These are a couple ingredients that can help when extensions are discussed.

Of course, the pitcher, club and its chemistry will only begin getting tested Thursday against the Pirates and Paul Skenes.

“Very excited, grateful about the opportunity,” Peralta said. “I know it’s going to be great.”

SAN FRANCISCO — More than any other team this spring, the Yankees racked up a quality sample size of data for the automated ball-strike system.

The time for trial and error is now over, but Aaron Boone hopes their aggressiveness remains, within reason.

As the regular season got underway Wednesday with the Yankees squaring off against the Giants at Oracle Park, so too did the use of the ABS in games that counted, with Boone’s club trying to make the most of it.

“I feel like we’re going to be good at it,” Boone said a few hours before first pitch. “That’s the expectation. I’m sure we’ll continue to evolve with it. My thoughts on it now maybe are a little bit different than even at the start [of camp], somewhat. So I would imagine as the season unfolds, those things will continue to evolve and we’ll try to exploit it as best we can.”

The Yankees used 102 challenges during spring training, the most of any team, winning 54 of them. Their batters won 49 percent (24-for-49) of their challenges while their catchers and pitchers won 57 percent (30-for-53).

Entering the season, Boone said he will not have any hard and fast rules about who can or cannot challenge, though he has voiced his opinion about it in meetings with his players at the end of camp.

“I’ve told some pitchers, like, ‘It’s frowned upon,’ ” Boone said. “But I feel like we’ve done a really good job of it this spring. I mean, it’s spring, so it’s hard to judge it totally, because especially some veteran players are probably trying out the limits of it, when maybe they wouldn’t otherwise. But I expect us to be really good at it.

“Really just trying to get our guys to understand leverage intuitively, instinctively, in the moment. Again, I want them to be aggressive, but obviously there’s times when it’s a bad idea to challenge one that you’re not certain on. Our pitchers, for the most part, have done a pretty good job. They’re not outright forbidden from doing it, but I want them to lean on their catcher.”

Some pitchers have said they do not plan on challenging because they are too emotional on the mound and think everything is a strike — along with often not having the best view of the pitch as it crosses the plate.

Teams will have two challenges per game and get to keep them if they are successful. There may be some inclination to save the challenges for late in the game in high-leverage moments, but Boone has argued that the biggest moment of a game could come in the third inning, depending on the situation. He just wants his players to keep leverage in the back of their mind for when to pull the trigger on a challenge.

Boone has also given his players instant feedback on their challenges during the season, often bluntly.

“I’ve been very direct with our guys when things have happened — good one, ‘Good,’ bad one, ‘Hey, that was terrible. Like that’s a 10 out of 10 bad,’ ” Boone said. “That’s how I’ve been with them. I told [José] Caballero one last week, I said, ‘No. Awful.’ [Carlos] Lagrange [on Monday], ‘That one’s for the catcher.’ So it’s been my little pet project if you will to try and just be on it as best I can. But I think guys have a real good feel for it.”

And while the ABS may take away some of the in-game arguing from managers, Boone, who has led the American League in ejections for five straight years, does not believe that will be going away entirely.

“I’m sure I will [find a way],” Boone said with a grin. “But we’ll see.”

SAN FRANCISCO — The toughest decisions Buster Posey had to make in his second time setting the Giants’ Opening Day roster revolved around three spots.

Posey opted for specialized skill sets over future potential by selecting Jared Oliva and Jerar Encarnacion over Luis Matos as San Francisco’s backup outfielders.

He decided to deprioritize platoon advantages by sending Drew Gilbert and Will Brennan, two left-handed-hitting outfielders, to the minor leagues, leaving first-year manager Tony Vitello with five right-handed hitters on his bench.

And he decided to go with new additions rather than known quantities to round out the Giants’ bullpen, selecting righty Caleb Kilian and lefty Ryan Borucki over Spencer Bivens and Tristan Beck, who both spent much of 2025 with the big-league club.

“The Matos one was hard,” Posey told a group of beat writers, including The California Post, after setting the Giants’ 26-man roster ahead of their season opener Wednesday against the Yankees. “Ultimately, [we] felt like carrying Oliva with what he can do on the basepaths, defensively, is a weapon for us. … With Jerar, the hope is to have some power.”

Matos, a 24-year-old former top prospect, was out of options and designated for assignment. Posey said the Giants are hopeful he clears waivers, but it’s unlikely given his pedigree.

While Encarnacion was also out of options, and Oliva had to be added to the 40-man roster as a non-roster invitee this spring, Posey said the decision had as much to do with a Giants lineup that is expected to have everyday players in at least eight of the nine spots.

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“The discussion we’ve had internally is that we feel fortunate that we have a group of position players that wants to be out there every day,” Posey said. “It’s gonna be our job, Tony’s job, medical’s job, to make sure that we keep them as fresh and out there as much as possible.”

The pair of left-handed outfield options would have provided similar speed and defense as Oliva, but Posey said he wanted both to get everyday at-bats after Gilbert missed a chunk of spring training with a shoulder impingement and Brennan returns from injuries last season.

The battle to back up Patrick Bailey at catcher was one of the closest-fought all spring, with Rule 5 pick Daniel Susac beating out Eric Haase, who was released by San Francisco.

Susac became the first Rule 5 selection to make the Giants’ roster out of spring training since Blake Sabol in 2022, but Posey said he didn’t take Susac’s Rule 5 status into consideration.

“I really wanted to see which player stood out the most, and both played well,” Posey said. “Daniel, I think the most important part, carried himself well defensively and swung the bat well also.”

Posey’s most anticipated decision came last week, when the Giants optioned top prospect Bryce Eldridge to Triple-A. The 21-year-old first baseman responded to the demotion by homering twice in exhibition games the past three days.

Posey believes a conversation with vice president of player development Randy Winn got Eldridge back on track after a poor ending to spring at the plate, though he didn’t commit to a timeline for the top prospect to join the big-league club.

“I think he got a little bit technical and mechanical in spring training,” Posey said. “Randy simply said just make sure you see the ball. That’s the most important thing: to see the ball. Because he’s such a physical force. For a 21-year-old, the skill set is already very, very refined as a hitter. …

“Bryce has a bright future in front of him. I think what he’s got going for him the most is his belief in his own ability but also from what I can tell his understanding of the changes that he needs to make to become the best player.”

The San Francisco Giants play the very first game of the 2026 MLB season tonight against the New York Yankees at Oracle Park. As a reminder, this game will only be broadcast on Netflix.

Taking the mound for the Giants will be right-handed ace Logan Webb, who concluded the 2025 season with a 3.22 ERA, 2.60 FIP, with 224 strikeouts to 46 walks in 207 innings pitched, finishing fourth in Cy Young Award voting.

He’ll be facing off against Yankees southpaw Max Fried, who concluded the 2025 season with a 2.86 ERA, 3.07 FIP with 189 strikeouts to 51 walks in 195.1 innings pitched, also finishing fourth in Cy Young Award voting for the American League.

Game #1

Who: San Francisco Giants vs. New York Yankees

Where: Oracle Park, San Francisco, California

When: 5:05 p.m. PT

Regional broadcast: n/a

National broadcast: Netflix

Radio: KNBR 680 AM/104.5 FM, KSFN 1510 AM