There are a lot of people that should feel pretty ashamed for themselves. The constant complaining about Yu Darvish not wanting to pitch, is too weak, is a mental case, all of it. It all needs to stop.
Yesterday the Chicago Cubs released the diagnosis on Darvish, he has a stress reaction in his elbow and will be shut down for the season.
MRI shows a stress reaction on right elbow and triceps strain for Yu Darvish and he’ll be shut down for six weeks and miss the rest of the season.
— Sahadev Sharma (@sahadevsharma) August 21, 2018
This, as you can imagine, spurred a ton of ignorance spewed from Cubs fans about Yu, their hopes for refunds (like it was their money), and the lazy and old cries for Jake Arrieta.
Now I apologize if this article seems harsh, but the loudest fans right now are just plain ignorant. These fans have continuously bashed a player that has had a serious problem in his arm that had gone undetected. Yu knew there was something wrong in his arm, and continued to ask for second opinions because the MRI’s didn’t show the injury. Now that it has finally been properly diagnosed, we know why it wasn’t caught sooner.
According to Beginner Tri-Athlete, both stress fractures and stress reactions are incredibly difficult to find and diagnose. The way it is explained, you almost have to be looking for that specific injury in order to find it. This injury is something usually found in runners, as the constant stress of running creates the reaction which in turn creates a fracture if left untreated.
In fact, had Darvish continued to try and tough it out, he would have ended up with a fracture in his arm, causing a much longer rehabilitation time. As Beginner Tri-Athlete explains, here is the traditional rehab timeframe and process of a stress reaction OR fracture (in the foot):
In order to treat both of these injuries a person is advised to stop activity and placed in a walking boot and can be made non-weight bearing with crutches depending on the extent of the injury when it involves the foot. Pain control, immobilization, protection of the injured area and a gradual return to activity is how it is treated. Typically a stress fracture or stress reaction in the foot is treated with 4-6 weeks in a walking boot and then gradual return to activity with rehabilitation and modification of activity. Total time for recovery varies from individual based on many factors including compliance to treatment, nutrition, extent of injury and activity level the person is returning to.
Basically, Darvish’s arm wasn’t healing properly after stress was applied. In a typical scenario, added stress would result in the breakdown of bone or tissue. The body will normally repair itself by creating new bone or tissue to fix itself. In this event, adding additional stress to the area would result in further injury. This is a precursor to a fracture, and if Yu continued to pitch through it, without allowing his body time to heal, he would have caused a fracture in the bone.
This isn’t something the Cubs would have caught in a physical before they signed him (hell, they couldn’t find it in three MRI’s). This isn’t something that Yu could have pitched through, as it would 100% have caused further and more dangerous injury.
This does show that Yu tried to get on the field a lot harder than a lot of fans give him credit for. This does show that it was just a freak injury which was incredibly difficult to diagnose. This should show that you really should show Yu Darvish a lot more respect for going out and continuously trying to get back on the field to help the Cubs, even with this issue.
We should all hope that Yu comes back in 2019 stronger and more effective than ever.
