WHIRLWIND TIMING
Darvish is watching, learning for now
The breadcrumbs spilled little by little as newly acquired Padres pitcher Yu Darvish was asked to consider the potency and potential of a rotation that includes Blake Snell, Dinelson Lamet and, a season down the road, Mike Clevinger.
Start with this: He didn’t think it was possible.
“When I woke up that morning, I saw the Snell trade go down and I thought nothing is going happen,” Darvish said Thursday on a Zoom call with media. “I wasn’t expecting the Padres to make another move. I was receiving phone calls within the hour.
“I found out on Twitter.” Good mound-related news travels fast these days.
If the end of the 2020 season taught the Padres anything, it came in the form of the old saw, “You can never have enough pitching.” The confident bunch marched into the postseason loaded on offense and dreaming of a new franchise reality with Lamet and Clevinger sizing up as the double-barreled equalizer against the Dodgers.
Injuries sidelined both — Tommy John surgery will keep Clevinger out until 2022 — as the eventual World Series champ rolled.
So, the holiday wish included pitching … and more pitching … and, if possible, some pitching on top of that.
Baseball took major notice when General Manager A.J. Preller scooped up Snell from the Rays. That turned to nearwhiplash when the encore came in the form of Darvish, runner-up for the most recent NL Cy Young Award. Suddenly, a rotation in peril gained fresh and energized legs.
Darvish acknowledged the wild, organizational momentum.
“I think this is one of the best teams in baseball,” he said.
Asked to measure the group of arms being assembled without a deep dive into the possibility of a bounce-back from Chris Paddack and the arrival of blue-ribbon prospect MacKenzie Gore, Darvish dropped another hint.
“I just want to study a lot from the guys in this rotation,” he said. “There’s a lot of great pitchers, better pitchers than myself. I want to be able to watch their bullpens, watch their numbers throughout the season and hopefully that can help me grow into a better pitcher.”
Better pitchers, plural? Company line? Good first impression? Right thing to say? Possibly. Even if exaggerated, there’s clear talent, given Snell won the AL Cy Young in 2018, Lamet is a Cy Young-er in the making and Clevinger has yet to log enough time to show where he fits in that hierarchy.
Throw in run support from the third highest-scoring team in baseball last season and Darvish must see clubhouse-wide stars aligning.
Darvish tied Indians’ Cy Young winner Shane Bieber for the most wins in the abbreviated season, despite the spotty offensive backing from the Cubs, who were just three runs away from finishing in the bottom third of baseball.
You don’t need all that offense on your best days, but it’s invaluable on your worst.
“I can’t really imagine it right now, but I’ve been having my kids watch highlights of the Padres lineup on YouTube,” Darvish said. “They are a very strong team. I’m really excited to watch batting practice.”
The combination of that offense and, now, significant and proven pitching depth — the return of Lamet pending — makes the question of closing the gap with the Dodgers a juicy 2021 appetizer.
Darvish, a trade-deadline rental, made nine starts for the Dodgers in 2017 before a couple of nightmarish World Series appearances against the Astros. Up to that point, Darvish had not exited a game without logging three innings in any of his career starts. In that series, it happened twice — including the deciding Game 7.
Despite the pitch-stealing asterisk the Astros continue to wear, it was cringe-worthy.
“This pain is going to stay in me for a while,” Darvish said at the time.
That means Darvish profoundly understands the sizable task on the horizon.
“The Dodgers aren’t just good at hitting and pitching,” he said. “They are good throughout the whole nine innings of the game. I haven’t faced them as much while I’ve been in the league and I don’t know how effective I’ll be, but I just want to be able to study and learn day by day and keep watching film on the Dodgers.
“And hopefully, we can beat them.”
The rough patch of pitching road makes the ascent of Darvish all the more compelling and impressive.
Since joining the Dodgers, Darvish has averaged more than 11 strikeouts per nine innings. His career average in that category of 11.1 leads baseball, all time. His 0.96 WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) was eighth-best last season, whiskers behind Gerrit Cole and Jacob deGrom.
Wedge that puzzle piece in with Snell and Lamet — who like Darvish don’t reach free agency until after the 2023 season — and add Clevinger’s eventual return and, well, the imagination soars.
“I am very happy to be joining a team that is as strong as the Padres,” Darvish said.
The feeling is mutual. No breadcrumbs necessary.