Yu Darvish’s Chicago Cubs tenure continues to get rockier despite his not being on the field. Not long ago, his return to play seemed imminent. But now Cubs’ fans will have to wait a little longer to see their offseason acquisition return to the mound.
Yu Darvish’s May 26th trip to the DL wasn’t his first of his short Chicago Cubs tenure, but it’s proving to be the longest. Now, it sounds like the total length of his DL stint could end up being over two months.
It's basically back to square one for Yu Darvish, who's been out with a triceps injury. He'll start a strengthening program in short order then play catch and eventually get on a mound again. A late July return is possible but the Cubs aren't putting a... https://t.co/TLiTVF9jFl
— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) July 6, 2018
That’s right. A late July return is possible. It’s not guaranteed, not even necessarily likely, simply it’s possible.
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It’s frustrating to see a guy that the Cubs bet big money on spend more time on the DL than in the rotation. But it’s the nature of baseball; these kind of things happen annually. And the Cubs have been fairing okay without him anyway. If it weren’t for Mike Montgomery’s breakout in Darvish’s place, we might be talking about a panic button deadline trade for a starting pitcher.
Fortunately, the rotation seems stable enough without Darvish—for now.
Darvish might return at an opportune time
Joe Maddon’s Cubs are a second half team. They have been since he took the reigns in 2015. In 2015-2017, the Cubs have gone 149-74 in the second half, a win percentage of .668%. And it’s largely Maddon that you have to thank for that. He’s as good as any manager in the business at keeping his players fresh throughout the grueling 162 game calendar.
That expectation of success in the second half good spell good things for Darvish. The pressure of only allowing one or two runs a game may be alleviated as the bats start to put up five or more with regularity.
Next: What is happening with Kyle Hendricks?
The Darvish injury has been an impediment on the Chicago Cubs in 2018. But it isn’t a sky-is-falling, end-of-the-world scenario. The Cubs have been playing well, and will only get better upon Darvish’s return.