Padres’ Darvish gets $30M this year in salary, signing bonus Spring training’s start brings pitch clocks, shift limits

SAN DIEGO – Yu Darvish This year, he will receive $30 million in salary and a signing bonus as part of a new six-year, $108 million contract with the San Diego Padres.

The deal, announced Thursday, replaced the final season of a six-year, $126 million contract that would have paid the 36-year-old right-hander $18 million this season.

Darvish receives a $6 million signing bonus, of which $2 million is payable within 30 days of the commissioner’s office approval of the deal, $2 million on June 1, and $2 million on September 1.

He is earning a salary of $24 million this year, $15 million in 2024, $20 million in 2025, $15 million in 2026 and $14 million each in 2027 and 2028.

Darvish’s 2028 salary will increase by $1 million for each Cy Young award he receives in 2023-27.

Darvish helped the Padres to the NL Championship Series last season, which was one of the best of his 11-year major league career. He went 16-8 with a 3.10 ERA and 197 strikeouts. He was 2-1 in the postseason.

In 2020, the Cubs traded Darvish to the Padres.

Darvish leads the rotation, which also includes goods from his hometown. Joe Musgrove, who signed a five-year, $100 million contract in July. Padres sign shortstop Xander Bogaerts to an 11-year, $280 million deal in December, though Fernando Tatis Jr. will be eligible to return on April 20 following an 80-game suspension after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug. Tatis will move to the outfield, possibly to the right.

The Padres may have bigger expenses ahead in the quest for their first World Series championship. All-Star third baseman Manny Machado could opt out of his 10-year, $300 million contract after this season, and the Padres would like him to end his career in San Diego. Machado finished second in last year’s NL MVP voting.

PALM BEACH, Florida – Jeff McNeil thinks he’s adapting quickly to big changes in baseball – anti-changes, really.

“Now I play regular second base instead of short right field. I’ve played second base all my life, so it shouldn’t be too hard to adjust to that,” said the New York Mets All-Star and Major League Champion.

Spring training begins on Monday in Florida and Arizona for players reporting ahead of the World Baseball Classic, with other pitchers and catchers starting training two days later.

After a record-breaking off-season that saw the New York Mets pay close to $370 million, Opening Day March 30 will feature three of the biggest changes since the 1969 season saw the pitcher’s mound lowered:

– Two infielders will be required on either side of second base and all infielders must be within the outer boundary of the infield when the pitcher is on the rubber.

– The base size will increase to 18″ squares from 15″, resulting in a reduction in spacing to 4 1/2″.

– Pitch clock set to 15 seconds without runners on base and 20 seconds with runners will be used.

“It’s been an eight-year job for us,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said Thursday, recalling when the first experiments were formulated. “Hopefully we get what our fans want – faster, more action, more athleticism.”

Spring training started a month later last year due to the lockout, with many players vying for deals to open camps. This off-season has been more normal, with some of the focus on stars with new homes: Jacob de Grom (Texas), Justin Verlander (New York Mets) Three Turner (Philadelphia) and Xander Bogaerts (San Diego).

Some teams also have new bosses in the form of Bruce Bochi (Texas), Matt Quatraro (Kansas City), Pedro Grifola (Chicago White Sox) and Skip Shoemaker (Miami). What they face is very different from the problems thrown at John McGraw and Connie Mac or even Earl Weaver and Billy Martin.

The timelessness of baseball spanned a century and a half in a sport obsessed with its sepia-toned history of flannel-clad pioneers.

“There are no clocks in baseball,” wrote Richard Greenberg in his Tony Award-winning play Take Me Out. “What could be more generous than giving everyone all these opportunities and time to take advantage of them?”

It turns out that all these dead minutes have become annoying in an age of reduced attention span and increased competition in the entertainment industry.

The average nine-inning game time has increased from 2 hours 30 minutes in the mid-1950s to 2:46 in 1989 and 3:10 in 2021 before dropping to 3:04 last year after the introduction of PitchCom’s electronic pitching device. signals. fields.

“I’m thrilled with the pitching time,” said Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash. “Speed ​​up the game. They get too long. If we play the Red Sox or we play the Yankees, they turn into four-hour games.”

The use of slightly stricter hours in the lower grades (14/19 at Triple-A and 14/18 at the lower levels) has reduced the average game time from 3:03 in 2021 to 2:38 last year.

“I assume that in April you will probably see several incidents. It’s inevitable,” said Cleveland manager Terry Francona. “The forwards will be out of the game, or someone will get the ball.”

With more shifts and faster pitching rates, the slugging average fell from .269 in 2006 to .243 last year, the lowest since a record 0.239 in 1968. from .254 in 2016, when left-handers were one point below the major league average.

There were 70,853 defensive ball changes last season, according to revised figures from Sports Info Solutions. This is up from 59,063 in 2021 and 2,349 in 2011.

“I think for left-handed hitters we’re trying to get the game back to where it’s been historically.” – Manfred

McNeil, a left-handed batter, is a major league batsman and will likely benefit from seeing infielders back where they were before the analytics era.

“When they change me, I just break the shift. And when they don’t move me, I just hit,” he said. “When they give me a giant hole somewhere, then I’m going to push the ball in there and try to get my single.”