Padres' Yu Darvish Inspired Dylan CeaseTo Learn New Pitch

When the San Diego Padres signed Yu Darvish to a six-year, $108 million extension in February 2023, they were getting more than the sum total of his statistical performance.

Darvish, 38, is also an inspiration to his teammates who marvel at the variety of pitches he can throw. When Dylan Cease was looking to add to his arsenal for the 2025 season, he drew inspiration from Darvish.

The new pitch he landed on: A sweeper.

“After last year we did a pitch design lab to see if I could even find one that worked," Cease said on the latest episode of the Diggin' Deep podcast. "I feel like 10 pitches in we found a 2-seam grip that worked. I like the action of it, I like how it felt. We kind of made a changeup grip off that. Just having an extra thing a batter has to worry about, an extra shape, I think is going to be a plus.

"You watch Yu Darvish, he throws 15 pitches for strikes — why can’t I just do that?" Cease continued. "It looks so simple, you know? The batters don’t know what’s coming. They can’t game plan against him because he has so many different weapons. I like that. I want to be like that.”

The actual number of pitches Darvish has in his arsenal seems to depend on who you talk to on which day of the week. Former Padres catcher Yasmani Grandal, who caught Darvish in Los Angeles, once pinned the number as high as 16 when factoring in all the ways Darvish can shape his slider and curveball.

“It’s a different kind of talent," Cease said, "because in a lot of ways we like to equate talent to how’s it spinning, how hard is he throwing? He’s got like that, I don’t know if it’s body memory or body awareness, but that’s probably why he can throw 15 pitches for strikes, and do whatever he wants. It’s a different type of talent really.”

It's also a credit to Cease that he was willing and able to learn and improve his repertoire after going 14-11 with a 3.47 ERA in 2024 — a season that included the first no-hitter of his career.

“Organizations or coaches can be a little hesitant when you’ve had success a certain way," he said. "This offseason I worked on a 2-seam and a real changeup — I have kind of a troll changeup, a troll pitch right now — so I worked in an arm-speed changeup and a 2-seam. We’ll see. I always know my bread and butter’s going to be the fastball, slider, curveball.”

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