Jon Daniels: Calendar Working Against Darvish's Return
DALLAS (105.3 THE FAN) -- Jon Daniels stopped short of ruling Yu Darvish out for the season, but the Rangers General Manager did say the team's ace wouldn't return until "everything is clear" -- and that's not likely to happen this season.
Darvish, who has missed three starts with right elbow inflammation, will not travel with the team on their upcoming 10-game road trip. Instead, he will remain in north Texas and receive his daily rehab treatment.
"Once he's completely asymptomatic, and the doctor clears him, we would get another scan at that point," said Daniels with Shan & RJ on 105.3 The Fan. "If everything is clear, we could get him back pitching again. But the calendar and how close we are to the end, I don't know that that will allow him to pitch again."
Jon Daniels joins Shan & RJ
(Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Daniels believes the right-hander would require a throwing progression to regain his arm strength, making it unlikely that he would return if deemed healthy in the final few weeks of the season.
"It's just so critical for us to go into next year having put all these injury issues and concern behind us as much as we possible can. It just doesn't seem to make a whole of of sense to me to take a risk when we the MRI shows there's something going on in there."
Texas currently sits 27 games back of the division-leading Angels and 21 games out of the second Wild Card position. While Daniels would like to see Darvish back on the mound, the focus has largely shifted towards next season.
Some have suggested that Darvish has simply quit or checked out on the last-place Rangers, something Daniels calls "not accurate".
"This is not an emotional decision," said Daniels. "This is not about quitting on the team. This is nothing except the fact that Yu has an elbow issue. Fortunately, it does not appear to necessarily be a long-term thing, and we are going to make sure it doesn't turn into one."
In fact, if the Rangers were still in contention, things might be different.
"If we were fighting for a playoff spot, then he and we might view it differently."
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