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There’s no hiding it. Yu Darvish hasn’t been very good through his first six starts with the Chicago Cubs. On Wednesday he couldn’t get through the fifth inning for the fourth time already this year. If only Darvish could pitch against the Milwaukee Brewers every time. Anyway, it’s pretty obvious what the Cubs should do to get Darvish back on track.
It doesn’t matter how you or anyone else views it. They’ve done it before with Jon Lester having his personal catcher in David Ross. I was shocked when the Cubs decided to start the season with Victor Caratini as the backup catcher instead of the veteran Chris Gimenez.
Well, it’s time to make that switch for Darvish. It’s apparent that he and Willson Contreras just aren’t in sync during games. Gimenez is not only a close friend to Darvish, but he’s also the pitcher’s favorite catcher going back to their Texas Rangers days.
If you're gonna lean solely on numbers, get 'em right.
They were paired 12 times in MLB w/ 3.29 ERA. Gimenez also caught all his bullpens in extended spring of 2016 as Darvish worked back from Tommy John. Darvish has told friends Gimenez is his all-time favorite catcher. https://t.co/JUaocNElOR
— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) January 23, 2018
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Right now it doesn’t matter if Caratini gets buried in Triple-A. The Cubs have to do everything possible to get Darvish back to normal.
Make him comfortable. If the Cubs did it for Lester, then they can do it for Darvish. Plus, having a veteran like Gimenez in the dugout could help Contreras out too, as he still has to polish things up behind the plate.
And no, Gimenez isn’t magically going to make Darvish good again, but the idea is he can help. Darvish’s command has been bad the whole year and that has to change to get back in the right direction.
Is it ideal to sit on May 2, demanding Chris Gimenez to be called up? No, but it’s an easy move the Cubs can make and really what’s the argument against it? Taking playing time away from Caratini? He was barely playing anyway and the only reason he’s played as much as he has is because Anthony Rizzo was out for 10 days.
Bring up Gimenez, Get it done.
