Chicago Cubs: Injecting a healthy, effective Yu Darvish into the rotation

Chicago Cubs: Let’s see what a ‘normal’ season would mean

I’m a firm believer that we’ll never see a healthy Yu Darvish struggle as he did in 2018. I went so far as to predict that the righty could represent the Chicago Cubs in Cleveland next summer in the All-Star Game. But even if he doesn’t pitch quite that well, any type of acceptable production could boost the club in a big way.

In his career (excluding his 2018 showing), Darvish has averaged the following numbers:

• Career: 3.7 WAR / 3.42 ERA / 3.33 K/BB / 166 IP / 1.179 WHIP
• 2018: -0.2 WAR / 4.95 ERA / 2.33 K/BB / 40 IP   /  1.425 WHIP

So, essentially, a healthy Darvish would add 3.5 wins to the Cubs over the average replacement level starting pitcher. But let’s not forget Mike Montgomery, who was worth 1.3 WAR last season, according to Baseball Reference. Let’s hope Montgomery can rejoin the bullpen as a 1-2 WAR guy while Darvish puts up somewhere in that 3-4 WAR range in 2019.

The right-handed starter could ultimately prove to be a huge difference-maker for the Cubs next season, in a division race that’s expected to be closer than in recent memory after the Reds, Brewers and Cardinals all improved their respective rosters already this offseason.

What we’re getting at is simple – we don’t need Yu Darvish to step in and pitch like an ace (although I don’t think anyone would complain and I’d love for the Cubs’ collective fanbase to eat some crow on him). What we need is for the right-hander to simply take the ball every five days and pitch like he’s proven he’s capable of doing.