Padres Injury News: Yu Darvish Appears to Have Avoided the Worst

At least there is some good news...

The 2023 season was a frustrating one for the San Diego Padres and it saw them deal with multiple injuries to some of their best players. One of those was starting pitcher Yu Darvish, who missed the last part of the season dealing with an elbow issue. 

However, the Padres all but got the best news that they could have hoped for about Darvish, signaling that he could be ready for the start of the season. He has been one of the more important pieces for the Friars in recent memory, so the team can at least take this news into free agency with them.

“Yu Darvish is expected to avoid arthroscopic surgery on his elbow, which was a possibility to remove spurs, and he could be full-go by the start of the season.”

Per Kevin Acee of The SD Union-Tribune

This is great news for San Diego, as they need their ace to get healthy. Last season for the Padres, Darvish posted an ERA of 4.56 and a record of 8-10. He also added in a WHIP of 1.30 and strikeout 141 batters over 136.1 innings of work.

It was a down year for Darvish as he battled through injury, but the team remains confident that he will regain his form in 2024. The team is poised to lose starting pitcher Blake Snell in free agency, so making sure that Darvish is ready to go will be key for this team.

They also will likely lose Seth Lugo and Michael Wacha, giving the team some major uncertainty in their starting rotation. But President of Baseball Operations and General Manager A.J. Preller always has something up his sleeve, so fans should rest easy.

This team wants to get themselves back into playoff contention, and they have shown a willingness to use their resources to do just that. While they may want to shed salary this offseason, San Diego remains committed to bringing a World Series title to the organization.