It had been a topic of speculation for several days, but the Texas Rangers made it official Saturday when they announced that right-hander Yu Darvish won’t pitch again this season.
Darvish has been on the disabled list since Aug. 13 with inflammation in his elbow and, despite being close to being fully recovered, the Rangers—officially eliminated from playoff contention on Friday—decided to shut their ace down until next season.
"“It’s kind of one of those deals—if we wanted to be aggressive and push it, we could get him back in the last week,” general manager Jon Daniels said. “But we don’t see any value in that. There is a lot more risk to it.”"
Darvish will begin throwing in another week or so and Texas wants to see him throw on the side before he goes home to Japan for the offseason.
"“Just so he feels good and we feel good that he is asymptomatic,” Daniels said."
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Darvish was an All-Star this season, the third straight time in his three-year big-league career, and was 10-7 with a 3.06 ERA and 1.261 WHIP in 22 starts and 144.1 innings. He struck out 182 batters after leading the American League with 277 punchouts last season.
Darvish was leading the AL in strikeouts per nine innings, but will fall off the leaderboard because of not having enough innings to qualify.
The Rangers have set major-league records in an injury-plagued season, using 63 players and 40 pitchers this year.
Texas has 16 players currently on the disabled list, an MLB high.