Yu Darvish gave away his weakness, but he has a solution

Hitting against Yu Darvish is a mystery this season, so he decided to give batters a hint

Darvish is likely the frontrunner for the NL Cy Young award, with an established 7-1 record paired with a 1.44 ERA. Such statistics are hard to match, and even tougher to beat as opposing hitters, but Darvish has supplied a hint of hope to all those trying to figure him out this season.

Per Yu, four-seam fastballs to right-handed hitters haven’t been up to par in 2020, which is rather surprising given his numbers against righties are far from shoddy. Right-handed hitters do pose a slight threat to Darvish, as they’re hitting a slightly-higher clip than lefties at .211. That, of course, is still not ideal for said right-handed batters.

So what’s the catch? Darvish has a backup plan

Darvish is one of the best interviews in baseball, as he’s notoriously frank and among the funniest players in the game. After giving up his flaw, Yu stated, verbatim, how he’s worked around such struggles.

“But I have a lot of cutters — three or four kinds of cutters. Two kinds of sliders. Or three kinds of curveballs. So I can replace the four-seam,” Darvish said, per Jordan Bastian of MLB.com.

Is that supposed to be simple? Darvish nonchalantly brushes off his one looming problem by stating he’ll replace it with….five different pitches. When Yu has it going, there is no hope for opposing hitters, period.

Darvish is the beacon for a Cubs rotation that’s led them to the NL Central lead. Chicago’s lineup has started to catch up to the team’s pitching capabilities, but the bullpen remains a resounding weakness. Chicago added two lefties to their ‘pen at the trade deadline in hopes of making this unit a dangerous one, but thus far it’s been fairly bleak.

Pitching Yu every third or fourth day in the playoffs is Chicago’s best hope.