Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish finally ended months of speculation on Thursday by saying he intends to make a move to Major League Baseball.

The 25-year-old right-hander, is considered the best pitcher in the Japanese professional leagues, wrote on his blog that he has decided to use the posting system, which allows the MLB teams to bid for the negotiating rights to Japanese players who have not yet to become free agents.

Darvish is the son of a Japanese mother and an Iranian father, went 18-6 with a 1.44 ERA this season for the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters. He had 276 strikeouts that led the Pacific League.

The Fighters gave him approval to negotiate with a major league club through the posting system. Ichiro Suzuki and Daisuke Matsuzaka went to the major leagues under the posting system.

Darvish pitched in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and was also a member of the Japanese national team that won the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

The 6-foot-5 Darvish has fantastic control and throws seven effective pitches, including a two-seam fastball introduced in the 2010 season. It’s expected that he would make a top-of-the-rotation major league starter.

“Darvish is the No. 1 pitcher in Japan, but we want him to become the ace of the world,” Toshimasa Shimada, Nippon Ham team representative said.

Darvish turned pro in 2005 at age 18. His pro career got off to a shaky start when he was caught smoking in a pachinko parlor on an off day during his first year of spring training, despite not being old enough to legally smoke or gamble at the time.

After going 5-5 with a 3.53 ERA during his rookie season with the Fighters, Darvish had his breakout year in 2006, going 12-5 with a 2.89 ERA and 115 strikeouts.

The New York Yankees is one of several teams that said they are interested in Darvish, on Wednesday won the negotiating rights to shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima of the Lions. The posting fee for the 29-year-old was $2.5 million.

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