Chicago Cubs: Willson Contreras, Yu Darvish look forward to big seasons
Yu Darvish and Willson Contreras take center stage for the Chicago Cubs as pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training today.
As Chicago Cubs pitchers and catchers officially report to Spring Training today in Mesa, Arizona, the majority of the buzz surrounds two guys in particular: one new and one old.
Yu Darvish just signed a five-year, $126 deal to solidify a rotation that has hopes of leading the Cubs back to a World Series championship.
The man who will be catching him, Willson Contreras, wants to become one of the best catchers in the league.
The partnership that they form will be one of the most anticipated developments of this spring for the Chicago Cubs.
https://twitter.com/WContreras40/status/963502578066587648
As I and others have delved into already, Darvish projects to have a huge impact on the Cubs’ pitching staff as a whole.
If he can make the 30 starts and throw the 181 innings that Baseball Prospectus expects, he’ll add tremendous value to the rotation—arguably, he’d be more valuable than Jake Arrieta was last season.
Plus, by doing that, he can help save a bullpen that has a lot of questions to answer. Aside from the fact that Brandon Morrow will likely get the first shot at closer and that Pedro Strop and Carl Edwards will probably work in setup roles, there’s a bunch of uncertainty there. That, and you can send whichever one of Tyler Chatwood or Mike Montgomery that isn’t starting to help the bullpen.
Of course, we still have to see if he can avoid the inevitable age-related decline for a few more years. But for now, optimism reigns.
And his young battery mate, Contreras, deserves a lot of hype as well.
.@WContreras40 & @VictorCaratini doing their thing... #Cubs #SpringTraining pic.twitter.com/G1rTWgUfE9
— Kelly Crull (@Kelly_Crull) February 13, 2018
If you recall, Contreras stated last month that he’s ready to enter that upper echelon of catchers that includes the likes of Yadier Molina and Buster Posey. Of course, Molina had to be a buzz kill about the whole thing with his “respect the ranks” weirdness.
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But it doesn’t matter if Molina likes it or not. Contreras has already shown that he has the ability to get there.
His absolutely ridiculous play after the 2017 All-Star break was a testament to that, both at the plate and behind it. In his first 20 games after the break last year, he hit .346 with 10 home runs and 29 RBIs. Plus, he helped lead the starting rotation to a 12-3 record, 3.10 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and 14 quality starts.
That was MVP-type stuff for that stretch.
Now, as he approaches age 26 and nears his prime, can he dominate over the course of entire seasons? Why not? As long as he stays healthy and stays on the field, the sky could be the limit for Contreras.
Next: Will Darvish decline as Arrieta did?
At this point, the young backstop has already developed a relationship with the other main rotation guys, outside of Chatwood. As such, we’d hope that the likes of Jon Lester, Jose Quintana and Kyle Hendricks just keep putting up the numbers they always do.
But if he can help bring out the 2012-14 version of Yu Darvish, the Chicago Cubs are going to be an incredibly dangerous team. And hopefully, it will end up being a monster year for them both, starting now.