Yu Darvish was one of the top free agents in baseball last offseason and ended up signing a massive contract with the Chicago Cubs. The team's plan was to have Darvish slide in and replace former ace starter Jake Arrieta. Unfortunately, that did not end up happening for the Cubs.
Right off the bat, it appeared that Darvish was not comfortable with his new team. It didn't take long before Darvish injured his elbow and the injury ended up forcing him to miss the rest of the 2018 MLB season.
Chicago's rotation desperately needed another big arm. Jon Lester, Jose Quintana, and Kyle Hendricks were good, but Darvish was missed in a big way. Cole Hamels was acquired from the Texas Rangers and will be back for another season in 2019.
That being said, the Cubs need Darvish to get healthy and back on the mound next season.
According to a report from Tony Andracki of NBC Sports Chicago, Darvish is just a couple of weeks away from throwing and the Cubs are happy with where he is in his recovery from the elbow injury.
Theo said Darvish is still a couple weeks away from throwing, but Cubs are very pleased with where he's at in recovery from elbow injury/debridement procedure.
— Tony Andracki (@TonyAndracki23) December 6, 2018
In the limited time that he was able to pitch for the Cubs last season, Darvish compiled a 1-3 record to go along with a 4.95 ERA and 49 strikeouts. Even when he was healthy, Darvish did not have great control of his pitches and gave up some big games to opposing lineups.
At 32 years old, the Cubs are beginning to get buyer's remorse. The contract that they gave to Darvish could exclude them from making a run at superstar outfielder Bryce Harper.
Hopefully, Darvish is able to make a full recovery and get back to his dominant ways from a few years back.
Expect to hear constant updates coming out of Chicago about the progress that Darvish is making. If he can get back to being the pitcher that the Cubs envisioned him being, they are going to be a very dangerous team once again in 2019.
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