Chicago Cubs: Why the Cubs won’t sign Yu Darvish this winter

Yu know he’s good

Since we’re on the subject, let’s go ahead and really zero in on Darvish.

For 2017, he was 12th in the majors in K/9 (10.08) and had a 2.80 BB/9 which is only slightly worse than 2016 (2.78), in nearly half the starts. Both seasons are better than each one before it. In 2012 that number was 4.19.

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Darvish’s 1.30 HR/9 tied him with Jon Lester, and familiar names, including a few rumored Cubs targets in Jeff Samardzija and Lance Lynn, and former Cub Jason Hammel. This rate was the highest of Darvish’s career.

His 3.83 FIP would be second-best only to Jose Quintana‘s 3.68 on the team. Kyle Hendricks‘ 3.88 would not qualify since he only pitched 139 2/3 innings. Lester’s was next-best at 4.10.

When healthy, Darvish’s numbers tell you he is among the best pitchers in the game. In fact, he had those numbers in 2017 despite going on the disabled list for back tightness in August, although he wasn’t down long.

Risk factor

I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m always leery about dishing out large contracts, because of the large salary, but mainly the length of years attached. Especially for a player north of 30 years. Add that to the clouded aforementioned injury history.

Aside from this, just as there were no real indications that the Cubs were seriously considering re-signing Arrieta, at his price demands, the same goes for Darvish. Previous factors mentioned a potential reason why, but it’s just not in the Cubs’ long-term best interests.