Cubs righty Yu Darvish has been diagnosed with a stress reaction in his right elbow and will be out for the remainder of the season, president of baseball operations Theo Epstein told reporters (Twitter links via Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune and Jesse Rogers of ESPN Chicago). The injury comes with a minimum six-week recovery timetable that won’t allow Darvish enough time to make it back in 2018.
An MRI taken today revealed the injury in addition to some lingering triceps inflammation, Gonzales adds (Twitter links). If there’s any silver lining for Darvish, it’s that the MRI determined his ligament to be in stable condition.
The hopes of Darvish returning in 2018 already looked to be dwindling, and today’s announcement from the team formally puts an end to his first season in Chicago — one that will be marked as abject disappointment for all parties involved. Darvish, signed to a six-year deal worth a total of $126MM in the offseason, managed to pitch just 40 innings in his debut season with the organization. In that time, he struggled to a 4.95 ERA with a characteristically impressive 11.0 K/9 mark but far too many walks (4.7 BB/9) and homers allowed (1.6 HR/9).
The Cubs invested heavily in hopeful rotation upgrades this past offseason, namely signing Darvish and fellow righty Tyler Chatwood for a combined $164MM in guaranteed money. Neither move has paid any semblance of dividends, though, with Darvish unable to remain healthy and Chatwood unable to throw strikes (93 walks in 101 1/3 innings). The disastrous season for that pair of high-priced rotation pieces prompted Epstein and the rest of the Cubs’ front office to pivot prior to the non-waiver trade deadline, striking a deal to acquire Cole Hamels from the Rangers which, to this point, has produced brilliant results.
It already seemed likely that the Cubs would be on the lookout for additional rotation help between now and the Aug. 31 deadline for postseason eligibility, as a productive return from Darvish appeared to be a long shot. With Darvish officially out for the season and Mike Montgomery on the disabled list, though, the likelihood is only enhanced. Chatwood is still being utilized as a starter in spite of his struggles, joining Hamels, Jon Lester, Kyle Hendricks and Jose Quintana in the team’s rotation. But both Lester and Quintana have hit a rough patch as of late, and the Cubs are in a tight division race, leading the Brewers by three games and the Cardinals by just a half-game more.
Five more years
Lol
Go Theo!! Another stellar signing.
Yeah, that guy has had no success.
Duh.
G
Holy crap I’m really sorry I didn’t mean to do that! Sorry about Yu’s wing for the sake of cubs fans though. But on the flip, congrats on Murphy
Hahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!!!!
Epstein has said he can always get pitching by free agency!
I guess an overabundance of h’s and a’s is one way to make a point.
Could the A’s even give contracts in excess of 5 years?
Not Cubs fan, but respect for SPENDING to IMPROVE And the story on this contract has yet to be written. (bad as you want to write it off)
*As bad as you want to write it off
Stop with the rational thought! It is so much easier for all the “experts” on this board to declare this a failure on one-sixth of the way in!
What do the A’s have to do with this?
OP FalseHope is an A’s fan. He started this thread
You don’t ever want your team giving a pitcher five years. If even this doesn’t apply to every single player. I’m willing to bet money on every 5 year contract with someone else and I know I won’t be losing money. For every one that works there’s 5,6,7 that are god awful
As a Red Sox fan, I would give my right nut to sign sale to a six or seven year extension
I don’t know what a stress reaction is. Oh well. Maybe. Next year.
It means the bone structure of the elbow is getting weak and could lead to a fracture/break. Not fully a break but could’ve led to that eventually happening. Better to get it healed by rest, regroup and get him ready for 2019.
Get him ready for 2019? Why, so he can go on DL again???
People are unfairly hard on Yu. The big question is can he get and stay healthy? If so, he still has good potential. And he’s not weak minded.
In other words he’s a P*?!!?
Ah. The logical take. Good for you, I guess?
No so that he gets healthy and stays off the DL
A stress reaction is that knot Theo has in his stomach when he realizes how stupid this signing was, he was damaged goods last year.
Well as a Dodger fan I’m breathing a sigh of relief that we didn’t sign him but I wish we would have spent the money on a few quality relievers.
Cause ryu and hill mccarthy and others have been the epitome of health lol
Lol, McCarthy gave LA as much as Darvish did this year and it didn’t cost LA a penny!
$4.5 Million Dollars of McCarthy’s 2018 salary paid by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Totally agree here, to be on the hook for that amount of money would have been a disaster. Ryu and Hill can walk at seasons end and McCarthy’s money was sucked up by Atlanta in the Kemp deal.
Hill has 1 more year left on contract.
I stand corrected, thank you.
Ya..the Dodgers have enough pitching woes. They certainly didn’t need one more at the salary Darvish commands.
Honestly, at this point it’s almost for the best. Now we can just put him aside and he can try to start fresh next year. I’d have been more upset if I heard Montgomery or Morrow were out for the year.
Can the Cubs take Darvish back to the dealership because I’m pretty sure they bought a lemon. >=}
So you’re calling him a fruit?
I feel like people are becoming sour over the signing.
These puns do have a certain a-“peel” to them.
AS IS / NO WARRANTY
What the Cubs going to do now? There is always next year for them.
My guess is win the division and see how it all shakes out in October
With their rotation troubles, they might even miss the playoffs completely. The good news for them is that the Brewers’ rotation is almost as lousy as theirs.
They are 9th in team pitching ERA and 1st is shutouts.. Their pitching is fine, just need to lock up the 5th spot. I don’t think you have any idea what you are talking about.
You quoted the stats of the entire year. Look at the last month and it’s pretty plain that their rotation is struggling right now. It’s not a good sign this close to October.
Actually the last month they are pitching to a 2.70 ERA. The starters have had some bad starts, but overall, they are obviously fine on the pitching front.
Wrong.
Lester Hamels and Hendricks are a solid postseason three. Nobody in NL can match those 3.
You are correct but it may not matter. Postseason baseball is more about bullpens than ever before.
Sucks since it’s a wasted year. However, just get it rested, healed and ready for 2019.
But the Cubs improved their 15th best offense in team RC+ by adding a wildly underperforming Daniel Murphy! WS Champs!
I just realized Murphy’s WAR is -0.8. I didn’t know he’s that bad at defense
He wasn’t ever very good on defense, and now he’s not even as good as he was.
Surprised me, as well. As strong as his offensive numbers are, he must be horrific on defense.
His 784 ops is just is just a small tick above league average.
His ops is almost 900 since july so he’s obviously playing better now and dragging up a very bad start. He’s generally been a good offensive player.
Murphy slashing .336/.379/.514 since July 1
Yeah, he can’t play anywhere on the field anymore, but he’s in the NL and they have to stick him out there somewhere.
Left handed power threat of the bench. Has all of September to get it together. Nobrainer move by Theo & company bolstering the ranks if Bryant can’t return & Russell fingers gets jammed up his arse
But can he pitch?
hope they bought insurance.
They could have saved 15% by switching to Geico
Haha. Nice!
Money well spent.
cubs might want to claim a pitcher.
Would’ve claimed Ross but cards stopped that.
He’s still pretty young. He can come back strong. He’s only *checks notes*…32..
Yikes. Well, good luck with that, Chicago.
This is the reason why baseball needs to be able to void contracts like the NFL. No way should this bum be allowed to cash is pay checks. I hope the Cubs took out a insurance policy on his arm. BT W Theo again makes terrible F/A signing
The Cubs made the offer. They know the risks. What’s the problem? And calling Darvish a bum? Kind of makes you an A$$
Also, because you’re such a smart and wonderful person, paychecks is one word. I’ll give you missing the H in his.
I must have missed the part of the article where it said that Darvish intentionally injured himself or failed to keep himself in good physical condition. In other words, blaming the player is kind of silly since he doesn’t want to be hurt and he didn’t hold a gun to Epstein’s head to force him to sign the contract.
NFL contracts cannot be voided while a player is on the IR.
Careful when dealing with commentors that have a handle that is a synonym for troll y’all.
Wrong.
Wrong?
I’m sure they do have insurance on that big of a contract, and it’s rather early to be calling him a bum just because the first year of the deal was mostly lost to injury (although the results when he was on the mound aren’t inspiring, either).
If the contracts weren’t guarenteed like in the NFL, then MLB would have to deal with the even worse headache of having players hold out of Spring Training in order to renogatiate larger contracts.
leprechaun, the grammar in your post gave me cancer.
Career Ender
And here come all the Cub haters laughing at a players injury. Classy
LOLz
haha I’m actually laughing he’s so insecure! lol
I said the minute the Cubs signed Darvish to the insane contract that they would instantly regret it. Darvish IMO is the more overrated player in MLB and the Cubs will be paying dearly for this move for the next 5 years
Not overrated any longer.
Also, I’m thinking Archer is more overrated.
Archer is more overrated but at least he’s not getting paid for it
Price the bucs paid for archer makes him more overrated than darvish. Hands down.
Glasnow meadows baz > millions.
It’s a big contract (and obviously probably will not pay off based on this season) but I don’t know that it was *insane*. It’s, what, $21 million a year? It’s a lot, but it’s not bonkers for someone with Darvish’s pedigree. At the time, some people were calling it a steal.
Hindsight’s 20/20 and all that. I was disappointed they didn’t r stick with Arrieta too, but I don’t know who could have reasonably expected this bad a season.
They tried to stick with Arrieta, but he turned down a very similar deal to the one Darvish accepted. There wasn’t much they could do if he wanted out.
Cubs haters take a look at the standings, and overall best record in the NL.
Yeah keep looking! Cardinals are gaining almost daily. Get the heck out da way!
Matt Harvey for Trevor Clifton or Duane Underwood. What do you think?
I think whatever you’re smoking is pretty good
What a bust…
I hope Tom Rickett is happy paying that contract over the next six years…
Only the first year, why would he be concerned? Also I think he’s probably in his mansion diving into his pile of money and gold like Scrooge Mcduck
How did this “setback” happen in his rehab start?
“He shook his arm as he left the field after striking out Great Lakes’ Cuadrado with a 95mph fastball for last out, in the 1st
When Darvish warmed up for 2nd, he threw 6 pitches and winced on each one. Miguel Amaya, who caught Darvish’s rehab start for South Bend on June 25, walked to the mound and summoned manager Jimmy Gonzalez and a trainer. After a short discussion, he walked to the dugout.
Darvish: [on the setback when it occured]
“During warm-ups the next inning, I felt something in there,” Darvish said. “Last time [in June] I did feel the same thing, [but] I continued to throw. This time I stopped.”
Darvish may have most likely prevented a full fracture.
espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/24418007/yu-darvish-chicag…
Just trying to find positives in this news.
Imagine if he kept going to try to prove something to all his criticizers. Rest is the best thing. Good luck Darvish!
We just need him to get hurt again next year and hopefully he requires Tommy john and retires so were off the hook for 4 years
Not how that works. We’re paying the bill. Hopefully he can squeeze a decent season or two over the next five years. It is a terrible signing from the beginning but that is baseball these days.
Wishing for a player to get injured is beyond the pale. Man, I hope you don’t have a job where there’s any possibility of you getting hurt and your employer just fires you so they can save some money.
Thankfully, baseball contracts are guaranteed and Darvish still has plenty of time to provide surplus value to the Cubs on the deal; at this point most teams, the smart ones, build in an injury year to any long-terem pitching contract – the fact that Darvish’s happened in the first is a bummer but doesn’t make a 6-year-contract a “bust.”
Oh baby, Yu, ain’t got what I need.
Doesn’t hurt with Hamels in Chicago now. I Just hope the cubs can keep winning in spite of Chatwood. Only hurts the checkbook but a Pearl Jam concert takes care of that
Darvish has a curse, or something like it.
He will not be a whirling Darvish anytime soon.
Oh stop moaning…. Yu know Yu liked it.
It’s completely hilarious how some kids are bashing the man that turned around both the Red Sox and the Cubs franchises
Don’t get me wrong on the 5 top 10 picks he’s had since being with the Cubs he hasn’t missed. The free agent and trade markets are a completely different story however.
Who can forget Carl Crawford. A strong contender for the worst free agent signing of a player who was never injured but was simply awful
Really? Theo traded for Rizzo. Arrieta. Russell. Hendricks. Strop. La Stella. CJ Edwards. Wade Davis. To name a few
The most important free agent of Theo’s era with the Cubs was definitely not a miss—Jon Lester….a huge, huge hit. Brought the baseball eyes to the Cubs are really serious and able to get a big name despite the stigma of losing and delivered a championship.
Where’s all the Twins fans who were yelling at the top of their lungs the owner was too cheap to get Darvish.
It still boggles my mind—nowhere between May 20th (or before) and the other day, did they do an MRI?? It involves getting into a machine (and probably not even for the arm) and taking some pictures. This MAY have been diagnosed three months ago. Was there an MRI done previously…..that is of public knowledge???
What a bum! Thanks for being a wasted fantasy pick.
I’m guessing he’s not really concerned with your fantasy team. Just a hunch though…
Is there any way the Cubs can simply void that contract, citing some kind of contractual breach on Darvish’s part? I knew this signing would be a bust, and so far it is.