Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters right-hander Yu Darvish became the youngest player in Japanese baseball history to reach ¥200 million in annual salary when the 21-year-old received a hefty pay raise of ¥128 million from the club on Saturday.
Yu Darvish
KYODO PHOTODarvish will make ¥200 million plus performance incentives in 2008, his fourth season as a professional. He was named the Pacific League MVP and won the Sawamura Award after going 15-5 with a 1.820 ERA, the second-lowest in the PL, and a league-leading 210 strikeouts.
Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui and Daisuke Matsuzaka, who were drafted out of high school and are now in the major leagues, all took six years to reach ¥200 million.
Yomiuri Giants outfielder Yoshinobu Takahashi, right-hander Koji Uehara and Softbank Hawks left-hander Tsuyoshi Wada reached the amount in their respective fifth seasons after playing college baseball.
"I'm not really satisfied with the results I had this past season. I want to double up my efforts for what I've got from the club," Darvish said.
Darvish, who has a 32-15 career record with a 2.53 ERA in three seasons, also helped Japan win the Asian Championship in early December for a ticket to next year's Beijing Olympics.