Yu Darvish, Chicago Cubs
We’ve already mentioned the importance of Yu Darvish’s health to the Cubs once this week, but it bears repeating. Elbow and triceps problems limited the right-hander to 40 very ineffective innings with his new club in 2018. His tossing of live batting practice this week reportedly went well, and after a mostly normal offseason, being on the Opening Day roster is a realistic expectation.
Opposing hitters generated just a 27.1% hard-hit rate against Darvish in his abbreviated debut season in Chicago, but his homers allowed per nine innings went up for the second consecutive year (1.58 this past season). After posting walk rates of 7.5% and 7.6% in ’16 and ’17, respectively, that number settled in at 11.7% in ’18. It’s also worth noting that Darvish’s 55.6% first-pitch strike rate and 26.0% chase rate would’ve been career-low marks if sustained throughout an entire season.
However, it seems like a lot of his control issues came from his sinker and cutter. The three-year progression in walk rate for each offering doesn’t look good (albeit with uneven sample sizes). The righty’s walk rate on his sinker has risen from 3.2% to 10.6% to 14.7%, while his cutter has gone from 0.0% to 5.2% to 15.4% since 2016.
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