An elbow injury has brought Yu Darvish's season to an early end.
The Texas Rangers shut down their ace for the remainder of the 2014 campaign on Saturday, per T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com:
Rangers general manager Jon Daniels spoke about motivation behind the decision, via Anthony Andro of Fox Sports Southwest:
Back in August, the Rangers placed Darvish on the 15-day disabled list due to inflammation in his right elbow. He hasn't returned to the field since going on the DL, which led many to wonder if Texas should go ahead and write this season off.
With a 53-88 record, the team has nothing but pride to play for at this point. The Rangers were the first team mathematically removed from playoff contention, per SportsCenter:
Now that the 28-year-old is shelved until 2015, he can focus solely on his recovery and take as much time as needed to heal up. If Darvish rushed back to the field this year, he could have potentially risked further damage to the elbow.
ESPN Dallas' Calvin Watkins wondered if Darvish's workload, especially in relation to his transition from Japanese baseball, was partially to blame for his elbow soreness:
The workload might have something to do with the arm issues in baseball, particularly with pitchers coming here from overseas. Yankees pitcher Masahiro Tanaka also is out with arm problems. Darvish has avoided injuries for the most part, but Tanaka didn’t, and he was going on five and six days rest at times during the 2014 season.
"It's way too short," Darvish said then of the rest between starts. "That's why they have pitch-count limitations, but pitch count doesn't have much to do with it. You could throw 120 pitches, 140 pitches and have six days rest and the inflammation on the ligament will all be healed. So I think that's it."
Watkins added that the specter of Tommy John surgery likely played a large role in the Rangers' handling of Darvish after his injury.
This situation is a microcosm of the Rangers' 2014 season. No team has been more disappointing, but the blame doesn't exactly lie solely with Texas. The team has been hammered by injuries the entire year, with Shin-Soo Choo, Prince Fielder, Martin Perez, Jurickson Profar and Mitch Moreland, among others, going down.
The sooner this season ends for Texas, the better. With no playoff spot in reach, the last thing the Rangers need is for one of their core contributors to suffer an injury while playing relatively meaningless games.
The Rangers have the talent for a quick turnaround in 2015, but the health of Darvish will be a major storyline. The team will need him back at 100 percent when spring training rolls around to have genuine playoff aspirations next season.
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