Chicago Cubs: Victor Caratini about to learn the big leagues aren’t fair

Through no fault of his own, Victor Caratini is about to learn that things don’t always go as they should. Why? The Chicago Cubs need a Yu Darvish solution.

One month into his Chicago Cubs career, Yu Darvish doesn’t have a lot of positives to point to. After his latest clunker, a game that ended in an 11-2 loss, the team’s six-year, $126 million commitment to the right-hander has a good many people quite nervous.

Through six starts, he’s totaled just 30 innings of work. He has allowed five earned runs in four of those six outings and has looked like anything but a front-of-the-rotation ace. And, if I had to wager, someone is about to pay the price for these struggles.

And that someone is not Darvish himself.

With his former personal catcher sitting at Triple-A Iowa, the Cubs have a card to play in bringing up Chris Gimenez. The problem? Victor Caratini has played well for Chicago this year. He’s filled in at first when Anthony Rizzo battled back issues and gives Willson Contreras a blow as needed behind the dish.

But this team needs Darvish to get his act together. So much so, demoting Caratini and maybe taking the metaphorical wind out of his sails seems like a very, very small price to pay. One way or another, though, the Cubs have to get Yu Darvish figured out – and soon.

Chicago Cubs won’t get an offensive boost with this move

Fans need to understand something right off the bat. With an offense struggling, adding a guy like Chris Gimenez to the mix isn’t exactly a shot in the arm. A career backup catcher who carries a .200 average and a .270 OBP, Gimenez is quite literally a personal catcher – little more.

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But with Darvish failing to make it past the fifth for the fourth time this season, you know Theo and Jed are having this discussion. The right-hander looked out of rhythm and missed his spots more than you’d like on Wednesday despite striking out eight.

“There are good days and bad days, and today turned out to be the latter,” Darvish said after the game. “Everything in general just went south today.”

In his Texas Rangers days, Darvish threw to Gimenez and seemed right at home with him. That’s all fine and dandy, but keeping a guy on a roster just to catch one pitcher doesn’t sit well with me. Then again, neither does watching Darvish labor through four-plus innings every five days, so it’s a bit of a rock or a hard place type of scenario.

Swapping Caratini for Gimenez isn’t ideal. But after already tweaking his delivery and ridding Darvish of his double hesitation move and getting the same results, you have to seriously consider the move.

Chicago Cubs: Doing right by Caratini and Darvish could be tough

No one expects Darvish to pitch like this all year. That much is clear. The question, though, is how to get him where he needs to be.

“We just trust that the process, as it goes for him, will continue to get better,” Ben Zobrist said. “Obviously, one month is one month and everybody can struggle for a month. You just keep making adjustments. He’ll get comfortable and find his groove and we won’t be talking about it too much more.

But will the ‘process’ end up costing a deserving guy a spot on the 25-man? Probably. And, if Gimenez comes up and Darvish all of the sudden figures it out, where does that leave Caratini? With Willson Contreras entrenched as the team’s catcher of the future, there isn’t a clear path to a stable role in Chicago.

Yu Darvish’s struggles could very well end up leading to Caratini’s path leading elsewhere. The Cubs have more depth coming up behind him in the system and teams always want quality young backstops.

Next: Caratini continues to prove he belongs here

Time will tell. But the impact Darvish could have on Victor Caratini is already a seriously overlooked piece of the puzzle.