Cubs Place Yu Darvish On DL

Cubs starter Yu Darvish is headed to the disabled list (retroactive to May 23) with right tricep tendinitis, Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic tweets. The club has recalled lefty Randy Rosario from Triple-A Iowa in a corresponding move, and righty Tyler Chatwood will start in Darvish’s place Sunday.

This is already the second DL placement of the year for Darvish, who missed time earlier this month on account of the flu. Darvish’s newest issue looks like a much more alarming one for him and the Cubs, given that it’s an arm injury and the team has so much invested in him.

Darvish parlayed stardom with the Rangers and Dodgers from 2012-17 into a six-year, $126MM guarantee from the Cubs over the winter, though the free-agent signing has gotten off to a slow start in the Windy City. The 31-year-old has pitched to a 4.95 ERA/4.81 FIP with 4.73 BB/9 across 40 innings (eight starts), thus offsetting a strong strikeout rate (11.03 K/9). Darvish has continued to throw hard, however, and his most recent outing (May 20) was among his best as a Cub. He earned his first win with the team after tossing six innings of two-hit, one-run ball – with seven strikeouts and three walks – against the Reds.

The severity of Darvish’s injury isn’t yet known, but it’s worth noting that arm issues aren’t anything new for him. The 6-foot-5, 220-pounder previously underwent Tommy John surgery May 2015, causing him to miss that entire season and some of the ’16 campaign. Darvish bounced back nicely from that procedure, though, and the Cubs will hope he’s able to return in short order from his newest ailment. In the meantime, the 28-22 Cubs will continue trying to catch up to the NL-Central leading Brewers, who own a 32-20 record and a 3.5-game advantage over them in the division.