Again, the news isn’t the worst case scenario for the Chicago Cubs and Yu Darvish, but these updates sure haven’t been good either.
A day after Joe Maddon gave a bleak outlook on Darvish’s return, Cubs pitching coach Jim Hickey was on 670 The Score and the current timetable for Darvish to come back isn’t until the end of July.
Maddon hinted at the possibility of Darvish having to start from scratch on his rehab from elbow pain and that means he could end up coming back until August if he suffers any setback.
The optimistic outlook is for Yu Darvish to return in late July, #Cubs pitching coach Jim Hickey says. He has to go through process of building up arm strength, which will include bullpen sessions, a simulated game and at least one rehab start.
— 670 The Score (@670TheScore) July 5, 2018
Darvish last pitched for the Cubs on May 20 against the Cincinnati Reds before going on the DL May 26. He was making steady progress in June and following a rehab start with the South Bend Cubs, the team was planning on having him start against the Minnesota Twins this past weekend.
As we know by now, that never happened because Darvish had a setback after experiencing pain during a bullpen session in Los Angeles before the start of the Twins series.
So, if the process starts all over and there are no more setbacks, Darvish should be back by the end of July.
The biggest issue there is obviously the timing of the trade deadline. At this point no one really knows how Darvish will pitch when he returns. So, although the Cubs have Mike Montgomery filling in right now in the rotation, you’d think the Cubs would be proactive in the trade market for another backup option.
Of course, they’d really only be doing that if they knew Darvish just isn’t going to be ready for most of the second half and not knowing how he will progress in the next four weeks kinda puts the front office in a tough spot to seek or not to seek another pitcher.
A few weeks back, there was also a report that left-handed starter Drew Smyly could return to the Cubs as soon as August, so there’s that option as well if Darvish doesn’t come back as soon as anticipated.
For now, the hope is Darvish does return and can at least give the rotation a boost down the stretch and into the postseason. One more setback and we might be looking at a surgery and that’s when the hope to see Darvish again in 2018 will disappear.
