The Cubs have indicated during this week of mixed messages about Yu Darvish’s recovery from triceps inflammation that some stiffness and soreness is to be expected when a guy works his way back. But “pain” is a different animal. That’s what you want to avoid.
And unfortunately, the pain is there:
Darvish bullpen "did not go well," Maddon said. Will be reevaluated before next step determined. "He felt pain on extension, he said," Maddon said.
— Gordon Wittenmyer (@GDubCub) June 28, 2018
So, obviously, Darvish won’t be starting this weekend:
Joe Maddon says Yu Darvish has been ruled out for this weekend and #Cubs will re-evaluate when they return to Chicago.
— Patrick Mooney (@PJ_Mooney) June 28, 2018
More information when it’s available, but I guess we’ll see if he’s now shut down for another extended period of time or if there’s another MRI coming. When he initially felt pain in the triceps, he had an MRI, and it revealed no structural damage, but he was given plenty of time for the inflammation to calm down.
The pain is either still lingering, or has returned, or there’s a new injury. Sigh.
UPDATE: I don’t know that we should get too optimistic, relatively speaking, just yet, but the Mark Gonzales write-up on the situation at the Tribune is framed as Darvish will need another minor league rehab start, and his return to the bigs is being pushed back at least a week. Given that it wasn’t a guarantee that he wouldn’t need another rehab start anyway, that wouldn’t really be horrible news at all. But that’s kinda hard to square with the “pain” stuff, which you’d expect would require a more thorough re-evaluation with the medical staff, maybe another MRI, and definitely more rest.
As with all things Darvish triceps injury, I am confused. More information will shake out in the coming days, and we’ll just have to see what’s what then.
UPDATE 2: More from Maddon, which doesn’t necessarily clarify anything, but we’re just trying to get all the context we can:
Maddon on Yu: “Over the next couple days, we’ll try to figure out the next course of action. He’s so important to us and our success. We just got to try to figure it out for him and for us. He knows he’s got our support. It’s one of those things, man. You got to work through it.”
— Patrick Mooney (@PJ_Mooney) June 28, 2018
Yu Darvish has suffered a setback and his return to the #Cubs rotation has been put on hold.
Joe Maddon explains more: https://t.co/rQuSudfibp pic.twitter.com/NF9DORoipW
— Cubs Talk (@NBCSCubs) June 28, 2018