The pose above is what we’ve become accustomed to seeing from Yu Darvish — sitting in the Cubs dugout, hoping to come back and participate in the 2018 season.
And now, we have learned he won’t:
Darvish stress reaction on tip of elbow, out for year
— Mark Gonzales (@MDGonzales) August 21, 2018
I’m not exactly sure what a “stress reaction on the tip of an elbow” is, but that’s apparently what’s happened to Darvish, and the Cubs have shut him down for the rest of the season.
That means they’ll have to count on others to make up the slack in the rotation. If Mike Montgomery can come back from the disabled list to make a start Saturday and continue as scheduled, that should work out all right. Montgomery was to have thrown a bullpen session Tuesday, so we should find out about that soon. That would give the Cubs a rotation of Cole Hamels, Jon Lester, Kyle Hendricks, Jose Quintana and Montgomery... not exactly what the team hoped for when the season began, but those five pitchers are certainly capable of putting together good starts.
If Montgomery isn’t available Saturday someone else will have to go, probably Duane Underwood Jr. or Alec Mills on a recall from Triple-A Iowa.
We’ll see Darvish again in spring training 2019.