The 2023 season is over for Padres starting pitcher Yu Darvish. The right-hander has been struggling with an elbow injury and has reportedly been trying to pitch through it, although he recently learned he has an “olecranon stress reaction” (via Dennis Lin of the Athletic). He’s been sidelined as a result of the diagnosis.
An olecranon stress reaction is a developing stress fracture at the “tip” of the elbow. Presumably, the Padres’ medical staff wanted to shut Darvish down before getting to the fracture.
Darvish, 37, finished the year 8-10 with a 4.56 ERA (90 ERA+), 1.30 WHIP and 141 strikeouts in 136 1/3 innings. The 0.7 WAR is his lowest mark since his disastrous 2018 season.
To make matters worse for the Padres, they signed him to a six-year, $108 million extension before this season. That’s a deal that runs through Darvish’s age-41 season.
It should be noted that there’s a chance Darvish could bounce back. He could heal from this stress issue by spring training and have a full 2024. I mentioned the disaster of a season Darvish had in 2018. He bounced back with a much better season in 2019, before finishing second in the NL Cy Young voting in 2020.
On the other hand, Darvish is now entering his late 30s, and it’s always possible that the down year this time was an age-related decline. We’ll find out next season.
