As Yu Darvish heads into major league free agency for the first time, he proceeds with a much clearer mind.

A day after being pinned with the loss in Game 7 of the World Series, Darvish, in a series of texts late Thursday, explained that he didn't lose his "passion" for baseball while with the Rangers -- as a quote had been attributed to him at the end of the World Series. Only after the trade was he able to make a self-realization of how much the sport meant to him.

Darvish said he spent so much time trying to live up to expectations inside -- and outside -- the clubhouse that he ended up putting more pressure on himself. That, he said, diminished some of his joy for baseball. After the July 31 trade to the Los Angeles Dodgers, it became easier to realize the expectations he needed to live up to were his, and his alone.

"When I was with the Rangers, I always played hard and tried hard, but I listened and paid too much attention to any criticism I heard inside and outside the clubhouse," Darvish said in a text sent via his interpreter. "There were times that my relationship with my teammates wasn't great. Those things led me to where I wasn't able to have as much fun in baseball.

"But after I got traded and I saw it from a different point of view, I realized how much the Rangers and the fans cared about me. That's when I gradually started to be able to have more fun in baseball again."

Darvish signed with the Rangers after being posted by the Nippon Ham Fighters in December 2011. At the time, he was the biggest Japanese star to ever move to the major leagues. He was joined by a large contingent of Japanese media, and his every step was chronicled.

The Rangers, under manager Ron Washington and pitching coach Mike Maddux, urged him to be more aggressive with his fastball and to be more efficient. It was as a process Darvish struggled with throughout his five-plus years in Texas. The pressure only rose when he lost the AL wild-card game in 2012 to cap a monumental collapse by the Rangers over the final two weeks.

It rose again when he came within an out of a perfect game in his first start in 2013 and finished second in the AL Cy Young Award voting in 2013, his best season in the majors. Then he spent the last half of 2014 dealing with elbow pain and 15 months coming back from Tommy John surgery.

After returning from Tommy John surgery in May 2016, Darvish went 13-14 with a 3.75 ERA for the Rangers before the trade deadline deal to the Dodgers this year. It also included a dud of a start in the 2016 AL Division Series against Toronto. He pitched the last month in Texas with constant rumors of a potential trade.

In Los Angeles, Darvish went 4-3 with a 3.44 ERA, had two strong starts in the NL playoffs, but then failed to get out of the second inning in both of his World Series starts. The Dodgers lost both games.

"I mean, there have been the games, kind of like this, but since I came to Major League Baseball, like [the] last three years I've been struggling to re-find my passion for baseball," Darvish said in a news conference after Game 7, referring to the pressure he's wrestled with internally. "And then I came here and I found it again. And I felt more that I can help the team to win. I started feeling more, and my passion came back and I [just] couldn't do it. At the same time, I was able to set my goal for the next time by this experience."

In the news conference, Darvish expressed a desire for another opportunity and said he'd like to do it with the Dodgers. Expressing that sentiment about his current team is not uncommon. Rare is the impending free agent who would burn a bridge by saying he did not want to return.

"I would like to come back to the World Series, and I want to pitch better," he added. "From this time's outing, I just want to come back and pitch better. It's tough, but personally, I want to come back to the Dodgers."

Twitter: @Evan_P_Grant