Yu Darvish has been highly disappointing to start the 2018 season, and the Chicago Cubs are not hiding from that fact.
Speaking with Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times on Sunday, Cubs pitching coach Jim Hickey discussed Darvish’s early-season struggles, particularly his tendency so far to come unraveled in the fifth inning.
“It’s happened a couple times so far, which is a concern,” Hickey was quoted as saying. “I’m not going to press the panic button yet, but it’s certainly something that needs to be looked into and addressed.”
Darvish, 31, is now 0-2 with a 6.86 ERA and a 1.63 WHIP through his first four starts of the year. That includes 12 total earned runs allowed in just the fifth inning alone, which he has failed to advance past in three of those starts.
That is obviously not the type of production the Cubs envisioned when they signed Darvish to a six-year, $126 million deal this offseason, especially seeing how they went the extra mile to bring the four-time MLB All-Star to Chicago.
Image via Los Angeles Times on YouTube
