Farid Yu Darvish Sefat (ダルビッシュ・セファット・ファリード・有, Darubisshu Sefatto Farīdo Yū; born August 16, 1986), more commonly known as Yu Darvish (ダルビッシュ 有), is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Texas Rangers, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Chicago Cubs, and in Nippon Professional Baseball for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. He also pitched for Japan in several international tournaments, including the 2008 Olympics, 2009 World Baseball Classic (WBC), and 2023 WBC.

Darvish was considered by many to be the best pitcher in Japan prior to his arrival in MLB in 2012. 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, led MLB in strikeouts with 277, and finished fourth in the AL in earned run average (ERA) at 2.83. He pitched in the 2017 World Series for the Dodgers, where his underwhelming performance was later attributed to being a victim of the Houston Astros sign stealing scandal. He signed a six-year contract with the Cubs before the 2018 season and was then traded to the Padres before the 2021 season. He was named an All-Star in 2021. He signed a six-year extension with San Diego in 2023.

Darvish has the most strikeouts by a Japanese-born pitcher in MLB history and was the first Japanese pitcher to 2,000 MLB strikeouts. He has set several career records for striking out batters in relatively few innings.

Darvish was born Farid Yu Darvish Sefat (ダルビッシュ・セファット・ファリード・有) in Habikino, Osaka, to a Japanese mother, Ikuyo, and Iranian father, Farsad Darvish Sefat. In 1977, Darvish’s father left Iran to attend Berkshire School in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, where he played soccer and raced competitive motocross. Sefat later played soccer at Florida State University and met Ikuyo at Eckerd College.

Darvish began playing baseball in second grade and led his team to the quarterfinals of the national tournament as well as a third-place finish in the international tournament as a member of the Habikino Boys. He was scouted by over 50 high schools while in junior high. He opted to attend Tohoku High School [] in Northern Sendai, a baseball powerhouse that produced players such as former Seattle Mariners and Yokohama BayStars closer Kazuhiro Sasaki and former BayStars and Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Takashi Saito.

Darvish became Tohoku's ace pitcher by the fall of his first year (the equivalent of tenth grade in the United States) and led his team to four straight appearances in national tournaments held at Koshien Stadium in his junior and senior years, twice in the National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament held in the spring and twice in the National High School Baseball Championship in the summer.^{[citation needed]}

Darvish led his team to the finals of the 85th National High School Baseball Championship in the summer of 2003 but gave up four runs to Joso Gakuin High School, the Ibaraki champions, in a complete game loss.^{[citation needed]}

Darvish attracted national attention when he pitched a no-hitter against Kumamoto Technical High School in the first round of the 76th National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament as a senior on March 26, 2004. The team lost in the quarter-finals despite stellar outings by Darvish and sidearmer Kenji Makabe (currently with Honda Motor Company's industrial league team). Darvish pitched 12 games and put up a 7–3 record with 87 strikeouts in 92 innings pitched and a 1.47 ERA in his four national tournament appearances, and posted a 1.10 ERA for his high school career, striking out 375 in 332+1⁄3 innings (67 appearances).^{[citation needed]}