Yu Darvish missed the entirety of the 2015 season following Tommy John surgery, and the Texas Rangers starting pitcher could be out of the rotation for another month upon the start of the 2016 campaign.
Rangers general manager Jon Daniels told Fox Sports' Jon Morosi on MLB Network Radio that Darvish could return in the middle of May.
Continue for updates.
Rangers Content to Play Waiting Game with Darvish
Sunday, Dec. 20
Most pitchers need at least a year of recovery before they're back to 100 percent. Considering Darvish had his Tommy John procedure in March, a May return date would be in line with that timetable. The Rangers start their year on April 4 against the Seattle Mariners, so he'd be out for roughly a quarter of the regular season.
The three-time All-Star made just 22 starts in 2014, including five in the second half of the year. His numbers looked to demonstrate signs of a lingering arm issue after his earned run average jumped from 2.51 in the month of June 2014 to 4.66 in July and then 4.91 in August.
That month, the Rangers removed Darvish from the rotation after he was discovered to have right elbow inflammation, and the team shut him down for good in September.
"I was told last year it was inflammation and that's what I felt," Darvish said in March after Texas announced the need for Tommy John surgery, per MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan. "I didn't think this would happen, but maybe there was some damage and I carried it through."
"Every rehab is different, but we're not going to put a stopwatch on it," said Daniels. "We want to get him back and get him back for good. We'll take it as it goes. Our mindset is to bring him back once and not have any setbacks."
While Darvish will be a key piece of the Rangers' rotation, Texas has Cole Hamels to anchor the staff until he is healthy enough to come back.
Missing Darvish for a month and a half shouldn't demonstrably harm the team's chances of making a second straight trip to the playoffs.
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