Right-hander Yu Darvish underwent an arthroscopic debridement of his right elbow today, the team announced to reporters (Twitter link via Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times). The procedure came on the heels of a second opinion from Dr. James Andrews. The surgery doesn’t impact Darvish’s timeline to return to the Cubs, as he was already down for the season due to a stress reaction in his elbow, and he’s expected to be ready for Spring Training 2019.
The operation is the latest data point in a nightmarish first season of Darvish’s six-year, $126MM contract with the Cubs. The right-hander made just eight starts for the team in 2018, missing time on the disabled list due to an assortment of arm-related injuries before news of the stress reaction in his elbow definitively brought his season to a close. Though his timeline remains unchanged, the optics won’t win Darvish any more support among a Cubs fanbase that has spent much of the season lamenting the signing as he’s struggled through his various injuries.
Neither Darvish nor fellow free-agent signee Tyler Chatwood (three years, $38MM) has paid dividends for the Cubs, though Chicago nonetheless holds a two-game lead over the Brewers in the National League Central with 18 games left to play. Though their high-priced pair of offseason additions didn’t pan out (at least not yet), president of baseball ops Theo Epstein and GM Jed Hoyer were proactive on the trade market in looking to bolster the club this summer, most notably adding lefty Cole Hamels and infielder Daniel Murphy in a pair of swaps. Hamels, in particular, has been a godsend for skipper Joe Maddon’s rotation, hurling 50 2/3 innings of 1.42 ERA ball through the same number of starts Darvish made (eight).
Chicago still owes the 32-year-old Darvish a hefty $101MM over the next five seasons as part of his front-loaded deal, so the organization has little choice but to hope that an extended period of rest will allow him to return to form, at least to some extent, in 2019 and beyond. Darvish did average 11 strikeouts per nine innings pitched in 2018, and his velocity was right in line with its previous levels, so there’s some cause for optimism. He’ll need to rein in his control (4.7 BB/9, 1.58 HR/9) moving forward if he’s to truly be an asset in the rotation, though.
Five more years.
Yea, see if the dodgers want him back. you might have to retain 50 to 95 percent of the contract
95 percent? He is owed 101 million over the next five years. So you are saying the cubs give him away pay more then the 95 mill the receiving team only pays about five mill or one mill a year for five years? That is asinine. What team wouldn’t take that kind of lotto ticket ? And why would the cubs have to eat that much. It’s comments like this that make me sad for humanity.
If you see this is a standard for your view on humanity, I feel sad that you’re priorities are so far out of whack.
Better go see the deal the Angels had to make to give Josh Hamilton back to the Rangers.
Five years, $101M remaining; Money, Oakland Athletics (still) do not know how to write. Respect Cubs (more) for spending to try win it all. A’s fans should be the last to criticize any FA signing.
Cubs>>Athletics as an organization, with better outlook.
I normally like your posts but this is way off base.
Well said xabial
For the record, Unlike you Falsehope, I’m not counting him out when the contract is less than 1/6 of the way through. I think you seem angry your team doesn’t spend Lol, take it out on big-market teams high priced FAs “disappoint”, not even through year-1. You really want this signing to be an absolute failure, but I still believe in Yu. Nobody knows the future.
Get over yourself
Why should xabial get over himself? For setting you straight?
Xabial so as he gets even older and his body breaks down even more you expect him to get better? He couldn’t even prove himself reliable in his prime years. What do you expect at age 35, 36, 37? Praying for 25 starts out of a guy each year you’re paying that much money isn’t good.
Lol yup. as he gets older coming off surgery he only gets better!
Tommy John surgery
Since when was getting surgery
I hope all you haters respond back next year when he wins 20 games.
That’s funny
Maybe over the course of the contract.
The old “course of the contract” discussion, huh? Didn’t this all start with Darren Dreifort and his 9 wins over the course of his big contract? It happens to everyone. But heck, it’s OK, he topped off at 4 Ws in 01 and 03. That was arguably the worst pitcher contract of all time.
He’d be lucky to rack up 20 wins over the contract. Lucky for the cubs, they can just pay more for someone else and hopefully their arm won’t fall off
Hard to take anyone seriously who cites pitcher wins and losses.
So true—-unless he actually does win 20. To get there, even with luck, he probably had to pitch somewhat effectively.
Nope, Just needs a crapton of run support. And with the Cubs’ offense that won’t be hard.
Could you please list 3 20-game winners who were not “somewhat effective”? Thank you.
There have been plenty that won 17-18 games with 4+ ERA’s and 1.3 WHIP’s which I consider average at best. Guys like Davies and Vargas last year for example. The difference is they actually stayed healthy which is something Darvish can’t do.
Thank you for the input brecrew08. However redrooster acknowledged mike21’s number of 20.
Salty cubs fan I take it?
You mean the non existent cubs offense that can barely score runs as of late?
The Cubs’ offense that has scored the 3rd most runs in the National League this year and can roll out Rizzo, Bryant, Baez, etc on an everyday basis.
HOF committee sure must. Just because some just want to look no further than analytics to make pitchers who pitch on crappy teams and do not win look good, that doesn’t mean every pitcher is good under pitcher pressure of a big/large fan base.
I don’t have to make good pitchers on crappy teams look good. They do that themselves (see deGrom, Jacob). And spare us the “under pressure of a big/large fan base” hogwash. Good pitchers will pitch well regardless of where they play and if they get run support, they will get wins.
So you’re saying 2018 oriole’s should be in the playoffs, despite wins and losses. Pitcher with more wins has shown the player can pitch deep when the deciding counts, saving the bullpen.
Often times having more wins just means you get bailed out by the offense.
I think deGrom’s year has proven that Wins means absolutely nothing for a pitcher. If he doesn’t win or place 2nd in the NL Cy Young voting then all voters should be replaced.
And I think people that don’t realise 20 wins is a big accomplishment shouldn’t be allowed to talk baseball.
People who think pitcher wins and losses matter at all need to be institutionalized.
and people that think they mean absolutely nothing are delusional
If you think pitcher wins mean anything in today’s baseball, you’ve obviously not payed any attention to Degrom’s season.
You are correct, wins are a function of a teams performance while ERA and WHIP are primarily a function of a pitchers performance.
Exactly
Exactly tharrie0820
Wrong. You’re confusing useless and less useful. Pitcher wins are definitely positively corrected with WAR. Obviously, pitcher wins are correlated with team performance in terms of run production, but that doesn’t make them useless.
Example: suppose you are comparing two pitchers. Pitcher A is 19-10 and pitcher B is 10-19 and you have no other information. If wins were completely useless, you would say each of these players is equally likely to have had better performance. This is not the case. The pitcher that is 19-10 is more likely to have had better performance than the pitcher 10-19. It won’t always be the case, as DeGrom is showing this year (my choice for Cy Young). When a pitcher wins 20 games, he is more likely to have had a good season rather than a bad season. Bad pitchers don’t often get 20 wins.
Are pitcher wins a good measure of pitcher performance? No, not really. WAR is a much better. As mentioned prior, pitcher wins are influenced by the pitcher’s team offense. (FYI, saying pitcher wins have more to do with team performance than individual performance also seems like a statement begging for proof.)
I don’t like using pitcher wins to measure pitching performance and I’m completely on board with not worrying about wins in choosing a Cy Young winner but pitcher wins aren’t inherently devoid of any information. There are just better measures of performance.
If the top two Cy Young candidates have identical stats but one has more wins, I’m picking the one with fewer wins. Gotta make up for Rick Porcello being given the 2016 CY over the much more deserving Justin Verlander somehow.
Aaronn! Finally someone who gets it.
How about quality starts?
With all due respect to Max Scherzer, deGrom should win the Cy Young and it should be unanimous.
I couldn’t agree more. Let the age of the Cy Young robot-voter begin!
Citing wins and losses to gauge a pitcher’s talent is pretty poor. That being said, you can win very few games and still be effective. It’s highly unlikely you can win 20 games and be completely ineffective.
2012- 16 wins
2013- 13 wins
2014- 10 wins
2015- 0 wins
2016- 7 wins
2017- 10 wins
2018- 1 win
I’m sure he’s bound to win 20 next year. The fact that he’s only pitched 200 innings once must be a moot point. Darvish 2019…23-4 1.80 ERA, .0980 WHIP, 300 K’s. I’m sure that’s what you’re expecting.
I’m expecting 8-8 4.10 era
Same here
95% of commenters on here are reactionary as hell and don’t remember more than 6 months into the past. Going off of comment sections like these, one wouldn’t expect any players to ever bounce back from down seasons or recover from injuries
You’ll be extremely fortunate to get 20 starts out of him, let alone 20 wins.
Imagine that. A cub fan saying wait till next year!
If he even starts 20 games….
Maybe he can catch a flight back with Iwakuma?
Cubs should sign Sammy Sosa to pitch. couldn’t be much worse
Would he pitch with a corked baseball?
All baseballs have cork or rubber at the core, so probably
Simply couldn’t believe Cubs management was stupid enough to agree to a 6 year $126 million deal with Darvish at the time the contract was signed. Especially considering Yu’s lack of movement on his fastball, diminished bite on his breaking balls and overall lack of command during the World Series. In fact, he threw so few quality pitches I’ve always thought he hid some type of injury during the series. What a long term albatross for the Cubs.
Pee Yu!
That’s a tough one. Honestly as a dodgers fan I wanted him back and was little disappointed they didn’t re-sign him, obviously this helps ease that. But saying all that they made an aggressive move to get him and committed to winning and still are without him. So him giving the cubs a good year next year will make everyone forget about everything that’s happened this year.
Develop the hitters, buy the pitchers they said.
Yeah and they won the championship 2 years ago, made it to the NLCS last year and have the best record in the NL so far this year. What’s your point?
Yea and that theory won a championship for the Cubs who also have won the most games in baseball since 2015 season
Cubs are on there way out. Cards and brewers are a way better team with a 1/3 of the payroll and they did without tanking 5 years in a row. Cubs may win the division but this will be the last year.
I wouldn’t count on that. I think the division is going to be very competitive next year but the cubs have very good young talent. All of their stars are prime or sub prime. And the Brewers haven’t been to the playoffs in 7 years, so it’s not like they’ve been competitive year in year out like the cardinals
What is “sub prime”?
Not yet in their prime
Hhhmmmm so you hate the Cubs. I get it. But you say the Cards AND Brewers are “way better” than the Cubs? But the Cubs are in first place with the Best Record in the league. Haha!
Not for Laing
You do realize d a m n near almost all of the Brewers players are on 1 year contracts, yes?
The Brewers won’t have the money to compete. They’ll let many of these guys walk.
Enjoy this flash in the pan while it lasts, because it’ll be over before you know it.
As for the Cardinals…LOL. They aren’t even close to being a better team than the Cubs. Their heyday is long behind them.
Hmmm12345
Hey genius. The Cubs payroll is around $180 million. You Cardinals are around $170 million. That is like 95% of Cubs payroll.
But hey go cry that their payroll is 1/3 of the Cubs! Haha. Boy you are jealous of the Cubs
Not jealous, just a way overrated team that can make mistake after mistake and still afford to contend. Your farm system is trash and obviously you’re not very good at picking up free agents. Your time is coming to an end soon. And I don’t hate the cubs, I hate there fans
“Long” & “Their” great grammar Jorts Boy….
Yea…you’re not jealous…just s t u p i d. Lol.