Yuli Gurriel and Yu Darvish forever will be linked. Now, they're teammates in San Diego. Gurriel was suspended five games after the 2017 World Series for celebrating a Game 3 home run off the Dodgers' Darvish by using his fingers to slant his eyes in the dugout and appearing to say the the Spanish word "Chinito,

Yuli Gurriel, 40, has agreed to a Minor League contract with the Padres, a source told MLB.com. The contract is reportedly worth $1.25 million if he reaches the Majors and an additional $1 million in possible incentives. The Cuban native spent seven years with the Houston Astros, where he won two World Series rings in 2017 and 2022.

His signing came with the endorsement of Yu Darvish. The first of at least three times A.J. Preller checked in with Darvish regarding Gurriel was in December. The Padres president of baseball operations wanted to make sure Darvish, arguably the player he respects the most in his career, did not have a problem with adding Gurriel.

When the San Diego Padres announced the signing of Yuli Gurriel from the Kansas City Royals, fans around the MLB world wondered how he would co-exist with Yu Darvish, the team’s star pitcher who he famously had beef with back in 2017.

The San Diego Padres made a somewhat move Monday that garnered controversy over how pitcher Yu Darvish might have felt about it. That move, apparently, was sanctioned by Darvish himself.