All Cubs want for Christmas is Yu
Starter Yu Darvish would be the ideal Christmas present for the Chicago Cubs, the team that has everything except a replacement at the top of the rotation for Jake Arrieta.
Arrieta and Darvish remain free agents as baseball’s hot stove gets checked to see if its igniter works. Cubs executives Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer showed how serious their interest in Darvish has become by flying to Dallas earlier this week for a three-hour meeting with the Japanese right-hander, who chose not to use an interpreter. The Astros also met with Darvish; the Yankees and Dodgers remain in the mix, and the Twins have called signing him a priority.
For the Cubs, pursuing Darvish makes more sense than trying to lure Arrieta back to Wrigley Field. Smart teams base free-agent decisions on the future, not the past, and let their heads overrule their hearts. Once the Cubs remove sentiment from the equation, Darvish projects as a more elite pitcher over the next three to five years than Arrieta, whose decline has been slight but not insignificant enough to ignore.
A starting staff that replaces Arrieta and John Lackey with Darvish and Tyler Chatwood can consider it an upgrade that makes the Cubs serious World Series contenders. But replacing Arrieta with a free-agent pitcher who lacks Darvish’s cachet — someone like an overpriced Alex Cobb — threatens to create a summer’s worth of questions about how the rotation stacks up against the Nationals and Dodgers.
The Cubs have ascended to a stage where demanding the best every offseason instead of rationalizing Plan B options represents the only way to meet the lofty standard they established. That’s why exploring a trade for superstar infielder Manny Machado of the Orioles made sense even if discussions included Javier Baez or Addison Russell — even as a one-year rental — for the chance to convince Machado to sign long term with a franchise committed to staying on top. It’s all about keeping the championship window open as long as possible.
Pulling off a trade for starter Chris Archer with the Rays, in sell mode after unloading Evan Longoria, still sounds attractive but likely would require at least one position player off the Cubs’ major-league roster in return. Dealing with the Indians for Danny Salazar would do nothing to improve the chances of playing deep into October, so that seems like a non-starter. Signing Darvish would cost the Cubs nothing but money, and Chairman Tom Ricketts can afford to add a pitcher capable of affecting a pennant race. Some might say the Cubs can’t afford not to, not if they want to play in a fourth consecutive NLCS — and Darvish looks more affordable and impactful than Arrieta.
Arrieta always will own a special place in Cubs history as one of the major contributors to a resurgence that resulted in a World Series title. But Darvish would give the Cubs a better chance of riding in another parade down Michigan Avenue.
Forget his World Series flop. An Astros player explained to Sports Illustrated that Darvish was tipping his pitches by the way he moved the ball into his glove from the set position — and he always pitches out of the stretch. The result was a disastrous two starts in which Darvish gave up nine runs in 31/3 innings, including the Game 7 clunker, but his were correctable problems.
Five months younger than Arrieta, Darvish, 31, had 209 strikeouts in 1862/3 innings last year, his first full season after Tommy John surgery in 2015. Anybody worried about Darvish being a poor postseason pitcher, based on the World Series, neglects the way he can carry a staff for stretches during the regular season.
Numbers suggest Darvish, at this stage of his career, will seldom pitch past the seventh inning, but few pitchers in today’s game do. Besides, the Cubs have devoted most of their attention this slow offseason to rebuilding the bullpen with veterans Brandon Morrow and Steve Cishek.
The Cubs still need a proven closer, by the way. They also want Darvish. Getting both would mean they got the most important things on their Christmas list.