NEWSLETTER
UPDATE: Don’t miss the good news! The MRI revealed no structural damage.
Fingers so very crossed.
For some unknown reason – perhaps the holiday weekend played a role? – the results of Yu Darvish’s highly-anticipated MRI were not released yesterday, as expected. We were already nervous, as fans are wont to be, but that really ratcheted things up.
And then earlier today, when Cubs Pitching Coach Jim Hickey jumped on 670 The Score, he surprisingly revealed that he still hasn’t heard anything new on that front either (which is strange, because he was giving an update on exactly that). Frankly, this entire ordeal has been a little weird and unnerving, however, the pitching coach didn’t leave us totally in the dark.
In fact, he left a lot of room for optimism: “I haven’t gotten anything new on that,” Hickey said via 670 The Score. “It’s just in terms of giving it a couple days to calm down, four or five days before he resumes throwing activities.”
But that’s not all. According to Hickey, the pain Darvish was experiencing had been bothering him for a little bit, but was getting progressively better before his last start (the one he was scratched just before). “It was continually getting better. But it just didn’t quite get there, and we didn’t see the need to push it at that particular point.”
That actually makes me feel a little bit better. Obviously, you can read into it a thousand different ways, but knowing that he was getting progressively better and just didn’t quite reach 100% before his start is a lot different than the dreaded immediate and sharp pain after a particular pitch. And given how early in the season is, how big of an investment the Cubs have made in Darvish, and the right-hander’s prior medical history, I am not at all surprised to learn that the Cubs would take things extremely slow.
But still … there is so much up in the air. Could the results of the MRI change the four-five day plan? Yeah, I think very much so. We’ve been burned enough times to know that the initial feelings of optimism do not always square with the eventual time missed. For now, I’m taking solace in the pitching coach’s optimism the way I do when a flight attendant is still smiling during some turbulence.
If Hickey’s still serving drinks, then I’m still calm. At least, on the surface.
You can catch the entire interview right here:
