The Chicago Cubs are shutting down starting pitchers Kyle Hendricks and Yu Darvish, according to Tony Andracki of NBC Sports Chicago:

The Cubs were officially eliminated from playoff contention on Wednesday night after the Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Cincinnati Reds. This marks the first time since 2014 that the North Siders will not be playing in October.

Considering that they have been one of the more banged-up squads in baseball over the course of the last month, it makes sense that the Cubs would preserve their stars now that they have no shot at the playoffs.

After an awful introductory season in Chicago in 2018 and a poor start to his 2019 campaign, Darvish rebounded in spectacular fashion over the course of the last three months.

In 13 starts after the All-Star break, Darvish posted a 2.76 ERA and 13.0 K/9 while holding opponents to a paltry .612 OPS against. He also had a sterling 0.808 WHIP, which was the fourth-best mark during that span. More impressively, Darvish's 2.45 Skill-Interactive Earned Run Average (SIERA) ranked second behind only Gerrit Cole.

Given that Darvish has already had multiple elbow surgeries and also dealt with a forearm issue earlier this month, there is no real logic in sending him out to make a meaningless start.

Meanwhile, Hendricks had a very up-and-down season. After signing a four-year extension with the Cubs prior to the start of the year, Hendricks posted a 3.46 ERA in 30 starts. However, Hendricks had two awful clunkers in August which also inflated his road ERA.

Still, Hendricks was notably better than he had been in 2017, and he might just be the new ace of Chicago's staff heading into 2020.