On the good side of things, Yu Darvish got back on the mound in a baseball game yesterday after more than a month off to rest and rehab triceps inflammation.
All in all, he looked fine in that performance:
HIGHLIGHTS: Quick cuts from Yu Darvish's rehab start for #SBCubs.
Final line: 5.0ip, 1r, 3h, 5k, 0bb. pic.twitter.com/jEzpOV018E— South Bend Cubs (@SBCubs) June 26, 2018
Yu won’t believe who suited up for the @SBCubs tonight! #MiLB pic.twitter.com/o5gkITgA54
— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) June 26, 2018
The less good news is that Darvish’s comments after the game sounded far from certain that he was feeling good and ready to go.
Darvish said he did not necessarily feel “pain” in his triceps, but “I can’t for sure say there’s nothing going on in the triceps. It’s not like anything bad, but I feel like anyone who comes off the DL goes through this. So I think this is more the process.” (NBC Sports Chicago)
It’s a bit hard to know how to take a comment like that, especially given that he threw five innings about which he otherwise seemed generally pleased. There’s also this bit:
He said it'd be up to front office and staff as to when he returns. Was throwing some 90-mph pitches we assumed were cutters but he said he didn't throw any and those were FBs.
— Sahadev Sharma (@sahadevsharma) June 26, 2018
You’d expect – even want! – a guy’s fastball to be down a couple clicks in his first rehab start. There’s no reason to really push things when you’re building up the arm and testing the feel of pitches. But down from 95 mph to 90 mph? That would be concerning, and it would be hard to envision a guy immediately coming back for a big league start from there.
As I said, it’s just kind hard to know what to take from all of this. Without Darvish’s quotes, I would have thought everything went perfectly and according to plan. After his comments? It’s harder to see him making a start with the big league team in five days. He’s heading out to join the Cubs in L.A., where he’ll no doubt be evaluated further, and then a determination will be made about whether another rehab start is necessary.