Cubs Don’t Expect Yu Darvish to Be Sidelined Long After Illness Setback
Yu Darvish was scratched from his scheduled Thursday start due to an illness that sent him to the hospital for testing. True to form, the ace explained the situation via Twitter, which initially caused a bit of a stir.
“Since I coughed yesterday and didn’t want to go into the clubhouse on my own in a situation where there was no possibility of corona, I talked to the team first and lost my pitch,” read a loose translation of the tweet. “It is a hospital now. I hope there is no fever and nothing.”
昨日から咳をしていて、コロナの可能性がないとは言えない状況で勝手にクラブハウスに入るのが嫌だったので先に球団に話したら登板が無しになりました。。
今病院です。熱はないはずなんで何もないことを祈ります。— ダルビッシュ有(Yu Darvish) (@faridyu) March 5, 2020
SMH, dude is too mentally weak to create an impenetrable barrier against germs and viruses. Next thing he’ll tell us is that he requires sleep and adequate sustenance to function.
Darvish subsequently tweeted that there was “No fever, no flu,” so maybe he’s impervious to illness after all. The hospital part sounds a little scary, but the Cubs weren’t going to take any chances with all the COVID-19 fears and the funk that’s been running through camp.
“I don’t know if I started all this crap,” David Ross joked to reporters. “Yeah, got a couple guys banged up. You know, taking precautions, especially with all the stuff’s been going around, making sure we get these guys hydrated and feeling good. I know how bad that personally gets, so just extra cautious in that area.”
Ross missed the first three games of his managerial career due to a bug that also laid José Quintana low and may now be hitting Jason Kipnis and Albert Almora Jr. While stuff like this isn’t typically as big a deal for position players, throwing a pitcher off of his routine can create a real setback. Ross said it’s too early to say whether and how that will effect Darvish, though.
“It all obviously depends on how many days he may be out and how he feels when he gets back out here, so all that comes into play,” Ross said. “I don’t know yet, I don’t know. It just depends on how long all these guys miss and how things line up.”
Theo Epstein echoed the lack of a set timeline, but added that Darvish could get some innings Friday or Saturday if he’s feeling better. That could mean live action or a simulated start, either of which would have the righty on essentially the same schedule moving forward.
Update: Darvish is home and feeling well, so the plan is for him to get three innings on Friday one way or the other.