Farid Yu Darvishsefat (ダルビッシュ・セファット・ファリード・有, Darubisshu Sefatto Farīdo Yū, born 16 August 1986), popularly known as Yu Darvish, is a Japanese professional baseball starting pitcher for the Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball. Darvish previously played in MLB for the Texas Rangers and the Los Angeles Dodgers and in Nippon Professional Baseball for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. In international play, Darvish pitched in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2009 World Baseball Classic as a member of the Japanese national team.
He was considered by many to be the best pitcher in Japanese professional baseball prior to his arrival in Major League Baseball in 2012.[2] In his first MLB season, Darvish finished third in the American League (AL) Rookie of the Year balloting. The next season, he finished second in the AL Cy Young Award vote as he led the Major Leagues in strikeouts with 277 and finished fourth in the AL in earned run average (ERA) at 2.83. On 6 April 2014, Darvish reached the 500 strikeout mark in fewer innings pitched than any starting pitcher in MLB history.