Just as the sport is getting back two of its brightest young arms from Tommy John Surgery (Matt Harvey, Jose Fernandez), another one could be going under the knife.
This time, it’s Rangers ace Yu Darvish who has a sprained UCL, which is the ligament associated with TJS. The Rangers just made the announcement:
Rangers press release on Yu Darvish. Check http://t.co/mkcBseoZWQ pic.twitter.com/TAFquTFAUE
— Jesse Sanchez (@JesseSanchezMLB) March 7, 2015
So, he’ll get a second opinion, and go from there. What we know about damaged UCLs is that, while you can sometimes pitch with it for a long time after rehab, eventually, you’ll probably need TJS. That’s the risk Masahiro Tanaka took last year with the Yankees, and we’ll see how it pays off this year. Now we’ll see what Darvish opts to do.
In the meantime, it’s debatable whether the Rangers will seek to bolster their rotation – adding a Travis Wood or Edwin Jackson, for examples close to home, or a big move like Cole Hamels – or if they’ll cross their fingers and roll with what they have. If they want any chance at being competitive in a great division this year, it’s almost impossible to see them pulling it off without Darvish. And if he goes down and they don’t supplement with a decent arm? They might as well call it a season.
What a crummy couple years of injuries for the Rangers, who lost pretty much everyone at some point last year, and this season isn’t starting off much better. It also stinks for baseball fans, because Darvish is a hell of a lot of fun to watch.