Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish signed a six-year, $106 million extension with the San Diego Padres this morning.

Darvish had his best full season off the rubber this season, sporting a 3.10 Era and .950 WHIP. Looking at those stats, it makes a lot of sense that Darvish would sign an extension, until you learn that he is 36 years old. This means that in the last year of his contract, he will be 42 years old, which is ancient for a pitcher. Only a handful of players have made it to that age mark in the high demand position that the starting pitcher is. If they even make it to that age, a lot of pitchers don’t have the ability to perform like they used to. Regardless, Darvish had the best season of his career. So lets take a closer look:

There are many ways to predict a player’s performance, and one way is looking at their stat-cast numbers. Stat-cast is a relatively new system that MLB implemented in 2015. It takes a closer look at all the in-depth metrics regarding a player. According to Baseball Savant, Darvish is above average in most of the stats tracked. For example, Darvish is in the 91st percentile in walk rate, and 98th percentile in fastball spin, meaning that he is among the leagues best 10% for those stats. Darvish is slightly below average, or poor in expected slugging percentage, barrel rate, and whiff percentage, where he is in the 44th, 24th, and 46th percentiles. Darvish’s production should be close to the same if he can continue executing his many pitches well. 

Darvish will look to continue his dominance heading into the 2023 season. The Padres have a chance to contend once again this year and will need Darvish to be on the top of his game.