During last night’s Cubs-Cardinals broadcast, ESPN’s Alex Rodriguez went in on Yu Darvish for his rehab process, something Rodriguez suggested he’d heard was causing significant problems in the Cubs’ clubhouse.
It was surprising, and felt kind of out of nowhere. Joe Maddon stuck up for his pitcher after the game, as you’d expect, and now Darvish’s agent is taking his swings:
Yu's agent fires back at A-Rod: "Darvish was right there on the top step in the dugout cheering on his teammates. He wasn’t hiding out in Mesa at the spring-training complex or back home like A-Rod was when he was suspended." https://t.co/qVdBVQ23Ch
— Patrick Mooney (@PJ_Mooney) July 30, 2018
In addition to taking some swings, Darvish’s agent suggested that what really happened was the Rodriguez may have heard “a little nugget of somewhat exaggerated information from one person” and then turned that into something the “entire team” was thinking. Given the comments, given ARod’s lack of a background as a journalist, and given what we know of the Darvish situation, I actually think that explanation sounds pretty credible.
You can read much, much more in The Athletic’s interview with Darvish’s agent, who was understandably pissed. I doubt this is the last we hear of the issue, as Darvish’s recovery process has been unusual, but I do think this kinda buttons up the ARod portion of the conversation.
Hopefully Darvish throws a successful bullpen session tomorrow in Pittsburgh, and then we can see what the Cubs have planned as far as a simulated game might go.