Cubs righty Yu Darvish is not dealing with a structural injury to his right arm, the club announced today. As MLB.com’s Carrie Muskat explains, an MRI showed only that Darvish is dealing with inflammation in his triceps.
The hope at this point is that the veteran starter will be able to resume throwing in relatively short order — as soon as the coming weekend, in fact. If he progresses well, then, it seems he may not end up missing much action at all. Darvish is already on the DL, with a placement dated to May 23rd.
While there was never any particular reason to fear that Darvish had suffered a major injury, it’s always at least a bit concerning when a pitcher goes in for an arm examination. That’s all the more true here, as he has struggled to open the year after signing on with the Cubs for six years and $126MM.
Of course, most indicators on the stat sheet suggest that Darvish hasn’t been too terribly different from his typical self. The results obviously haven’t been great — he owns a 4.95 ERA and has handled only forty innings in eight starts — but the 31-year-old is throwing with his typical fastball velocity (94.8 mph) and generating swings and misses in range of his career rate (11.1% this year; 12.1% career).
There will surely be some things to work on for Darvish once his arm feels at full strength. He has issued too many walks (4.7 per nine) and permitted too many long balls (1.58 per nine, 17.5% HR/FB rate), but the hope will remain that he can sort through those concerns and get back to being the high-quality rotation piece he was viewed as when he was signed.
In the meantime, Mike Montgomery will fill in for Darvish. He represents a solid backup plan for a Cubs team that is nevertheless dealing with some general consternation in the starting staff even beyond the Darvish situation. Jon Lester and Kyle Hendricks have been excellent, but Jose Quintana owns a 4.78 ERA and Tyler Chatwood has allowed more walks (45) than strikeouts (44) to this point of the season.
I remember when the Cubs used to dominate the NL Central
Yeah I think they’ll be fine. I don’t think the Brewers are nearly as good as they’ve played.
I remember when they were below .500 and 5.5 games back from the Brewers at the All-Star break last year too.
That’s a bell ringer!
Yep, I remember the last couple of years too. Do you remember the Cubs record this time last year? Do you remember where they ended up? Yeah, I would think most people can remember recent events, even sad, pathetic lil trolls.
In the Cubs 2016 championship season they lead from start to finish, could afford to rest their regulars more in September and set up their rotation exactly as they wanted heading into the postseason. Due to their poor start last year they didn’t have that luxury and may have burned themselves out just trying to make the playoffs where they were eliminated handily in the NLCS. So far, 2018 is looking much like last season.
Last year the Cubs used the World Series “hangover” excuse for their slow start. They can’t play that card again this season. I never bought the “hangover” excuse anyway. I believe they suffered from Joe Maddon micro-managing disease which began to manifest symptoms during the 2016 playoff run, became an epidemic last season and still has no cure in sight for 2018.
You can also quit calling anybody who criticized the Cubs trolls. I have been a Cub fan longer than most and perhaps even before your parents were born. Nobody was more excited than I was about the Cubs long term prospects when they hired Theo Epstein and undertook their rebuild. Despite some mistakes in free agency and with trades I still feel pretty good about the front office but have much less faith in their “genius” manager.
On deck Joe Girardi
Joe is keeping them loose and fresh for the second half. Check out his teams’ first half vs second half records. They overwhelmingly improve.
I also think Joe “the Genius” Maddon is vastly over rated and the Cubs won in 2016 in spite of him. He over manages
and doesn’t run a pitching staff very well , especially the bullpen!
Joe Maddon abuses his bullpen in part because he doesn’t trust his starters to pitch more than 6 innings. He also tends to yank them with pitch counts in the 70-90 range even if they are throwing effectively.
Maddon micro-manages his pitching staff and lineups like its fantasy baseball. He desperately wants to be the star of a franchise that already has plenty of them on the field.
They also started 24-6. That’s an insane start. Brewers are just not that good.
I don’t get the trash talk. Astros are hardly dominating. Only 1 game ahead of the Mariners
I remember when the Brewers won the World Ser….never mind.
Like the Cardinals did for the last 20 years. Let check the stats over that period and see who dominated!
Everybody! Take a drink!
Make him pitch left-handed. Stats would probably be close to the same.
They should have ordered a CT scan on his head as well.
Seriously? Try harder. It’s one thing to be an obsessed troll, but at least try to be clever about it.
How old are you?
Who cares how old someone is…. either their post sucks or it doesn’t.
How old are you, Gary? lol
Here’s a clue. Guys that use their name are over 50.
Guys that use a symbol or a funny name are under 50.
Mostly. Not all. Mostly.
Guys that use their first and last name? Over 65 and haven’t heard of Internet search engines and cyber crime.
Um, his head is fine. He signed a six-year contract.
True enough! Perhaps Theo and Tom Ricketts should have their heads examined instead.
Cubs teammate who knows Yu Darvish best says pitcher believes fans ‘hate’ him: chicago.suntimes.com/?post_type=cst_article&p…
Head case indeed! Perhaps the front office should spend more time analyzing the psyche of free agents along with the medicals and their obvious infatuation with advanced metrics. They made a mistake with one WAR darling in Jason Heyward and now may have done likewise with Yu Darvish. At least they knew what they had in Jake Arrieta!
That might be a cultural thing. Always trying to please and work harder and that kind of thing. They don’t like to come out of a game injured or go on the DL Etc they trying to fight through it even when they shouldn’t. Tremendous fortitude.
At least Heyward will opt out this offseason, making the Yu disaster contract a little more bearable
That’s truly wishful thinking. Why on earth would he?
That was a ChiSox fan trying to be ironic.
Perhaps, but there are ways to indicate that like an “lol” or “eye roll”. I’m thinking this particular White Sox fan was dead serious, dead wrong and maybe even brain dead. lol
On a side note..Kyle is looking pretty svelte these days. Black pinstripes are even more slimming. Clint Frazier straight up, that red hair would go good with the ivy.
Good to see that I’m not the only one with a man crush on the Schwarbs. I believe he would also be dapper wearing pinstripes on the South Side of Chicago. Hulk is tailor-made for either AL ballpark as a regular DH and potential backup at 1B and in LF.
However, after the last trade between the city rivals I doubt the Cubs will want to deal with the White Sox again anytime soon. Sad to say it, but there’s a much better chance that Schwarber winds up in the Bronx than across town.
And the red hair would also match the Cubs logo. But I think Theo has the biggest man crush of all on Kyle. It would bring him to tears to trade him.
kyleschwarbersmom: Many Cub fans believe the same relationship exists between Joe Maddon and Ian Happ which negatively impacts Albert Almora’s playing time.
what
Ah, yes, the lie that Cubs fans tell themselves so to feel better. In Theo we trust.
Theo who broke Red Sox and Cubs curse? I like that guy
Meh, these trolls aren’t even clever or entertaining. It’s pathetic enough to troll, but to be bad at trying to be a douche… wow.
The fact is, only novices look at the standings in May. Theo, once again, built a beast. 3 straight NLCS, a ring already in the bank, and this young core of studs haven’t even peaked yet. They’ll once again win the division and be back in the post season. Meanwhile, their core is young and locked up for years to come. The pen is great, the starters will ultimately get back to their career norms and IF Theo needs it, he has PLENTY of money to play with because he was smart to not hit the luxury tax threshold. The Yanks and Dodgers had to reset their tax penalty so they can play this upcoming winter, the Cubs once again, we’re not offenders or obviously repeat offenders, so they will go big this winter as well and continue to upgrade.
I know it has sucked for all the haters, but sadly for you, this team’s window is WIDE open for years to come. So keep your Kleenex well stocked, you’re gonna need it. Sooooo, what “lie” are Cubs fans telling themselves again? Haha, stay tuned clown, it only gets worse.
BRILLIANT post! I suspect the Brewers fans are getting a bit uptight. as their yearly choke is approaching.
A lot of those young players contracts will all be coming up so much sooner than you think! The bullpen is not that great
and they have what pitching in the minors to replace the soon to be exiting starters? Will they have enough money left to sign pitching after they get Harper
and Machado ? At least according to so many baby bear homers anyway. I think it might be another long , long drought in Chitown. But good luck !
There is no way in hell that Heyward is opting out of that albatross of a contract! Ever!
Nah, Yu just aint who yu thought he was.
For F*** sake, be better… try harder, this remedial attempt at trolling is bush league. Plenty of obsessed Cub trolls to take a queue from, up your game kid.
Yea, the trolls are almost as bad as the homers huh? ALMOST!
Yea yu sucks, who gives a f***?
After reading some of the posts here it looks like the Brewers and Cubs are developing a fun rivalry.
It seems like it’s still the Cubs to lose. The run differentials tell a big story. The Cubs are at +79 and the Brewers are at +33. This doesn’t tell the WHOLE story but it’s important.
Kendrick, Lester Darvish are a really good 1-3, though Darvish peripherals might be something to be a little nervous about. I’d still give Darvish the benefit of the doubt though as those same peripherals said he was good just last year.
I agree with you first point. The rivalry is heating up and probably equal to the Cub-Cardinal one especially with the Brewers trying everything in their power to prevent Cub fans from buying tickets to Miller Park.
I also believe that the Cubs can overtake the Brewers who they have beaten like a drum this season by winning 7 of their 8 contests. It’s a good thing too or they would really be in trouble as the season nears the one-third mark.
I’m not a fan of the run differential argument. It means little during the regular season and even less once the postseason begins. All it proves is that the Cubs often clobber teams when they win and seldom get thrashed when they lose. The Cubs are also 1-4 in extra inning games and 5-9 in one-run contests this season which helps support my argument that their manager is overrated.
Don’t sleep on the Cardinals! That pitching staff could be really scary good if they all get healthy. Cards hitting will heat up in the 2nd half
and hopefully they add a power bat to the lineup at the break. Things could get crowded at the top of the NL Central .
Cubs fans waited for 108 years to be hated and reviled. Keep that stuff coming…it’s delicious.
2016 is 2 WS champs ago
One WS champs ago, this ain’t back to the future…
These post are really funny.
Why isn’t what I could arguably call the Cubs first quarter if the season MVP with his top fight defense in center field, and his highest batting average on the Cubs? Surely he has more AB’s than Zobrist????