Good Morning San Diego: Yu Darvish contemplating retirement; Padres to wear patch in honor of Randy Jones

As the 2026 MLB season draws near, various projections have started to come out about where the San Diego Padres will finish as a team, and some sites have gone on to predict how individual players will finish their season. These projections are a lot like weather models. There are formulas and trends that are taken into consideration and while sometimes these projections come to pass, nothing is certain. Cheri Bell of Gaslamp Ball provides an explanation of how the projections are made and what those projections look like for the Padres.

Padres News:

• Padres CEO Erik Greupner announced at the celebration of life ceremony for Padres Hall of Famer Randy Jones that the 2026 team will wear a “35” patch on their uniforms to honor the late Cy Young Award winner. Current players, former teammates and fans filled Petco Park Saturday to pay their respects to Jones.
• Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribunereported Saturday that Padres pitcher Yu Darvish, who will miss the 2026 season recovering from offseason surgery, was planning to retire and forfeit the remaining years and money on his contract. Since Acee filed the report, Darvish and his agent, Joe Wolfe, responded on X stating the report was not accurate and that he had not made a formal decision. Sonja Chen of MLB.com is reporting that Darvish is “leaning towards” voiding what is left of his contract, but the previous report was premature. Dennis Lin of The Athletic is reporting that the final details of a potential Darvish retirement have yet to be decided.
• The Padres added infielder Samad Taylor on a minor league contract with an invite to Spring Training.

Baseball News:

• Longtime closer Craig Kimbrel agreed to a minor league deal with the New York Mets with an invitation to Spring Training.
• The Pittsburgh Pirates have made it known they are open to resigning outfielder Andrew McCutchen.
• The Cleveland Guardians and third baseman Jose Ramirez agreed to a contract extension that adds $106 million to his current deal and will keep him in Cleveland through 2032.
• Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com reported he believes there are teams that can beat the Los Angeles Dodgers and he listed his top five candidates as the Mets, Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers.