Patient approach has helped Yu, Rangers

Had the Rangers pushed it, had they followed the 12-month timetable that was once considered somewhat standard for those bearing fresh Tommy John surgical scars, then Yu Darvish would have been in their Opening Day plans, sure.

But he probably wouldn’t have looked like this.

Darvish will make his second start of 2016 for the Rangers on Friday night at Globe Life Park. And if it’s a natural extension of his first, the division-rival Mariners will have their work cut out for them.

In his return to a Major League mound on Saturday, Darvish worked five strong innings against the Pirates, allowing a run on three hits and a walk. What really stood out, though, was the sizzle of his stuff. According to Statcast™, the 29-year-old Darvish threw three pitches at more than 98 mph, exceeding his maximum velocity from any point in his 2014 season.

The Rangers showed an abundance of patience in getting their co-ace back up to operational speed. In doing so, they might have been rewarded with a more powerful Darvish.

“To be honest,” Darvish said through an interpreter, “thinking about when I was at 12 months, if I had to pitch in that situation or at that time, I probably would have had to push it. So I’m really glad I had 14 months.”

There is no one way to come back from transplanting a tendon to repair a pitcher’s elbow, but there was a time when the conventional wisdom was that a pitcher who has an elbow reconstruction misses a calendar year, often as a somewhat diminished version of his previous self.

More and more, though, the industry standard is to prolong that absentee period in the hope of not only a stronger return but a more stable one.

Remember in Spring Training 2014, when Matt Harvey, mere months after his procedure, went on …

continue reading in source mlb.mlb.com