The night before Yu Darvish released the final rehab release of his painful and awkward 2018 season, I was at Wrigley Field, behind Jed Hoyer at a Pearl Jam concert.
As I woke up early and went to the hangover to drive to South Bend, Ind., Hoyer, then the GM and now the president of baseball operations, said he would see Darvish leave home, probably also hangover .
I’m not sure how delayed his internet connection was, but I think I was the one who broke the news to him through a text that Cubs coach Matt Johnson was examining Darvish in the second post of that start. Darvish would leave the August 19 match and return in 2019.
And now Hoyer should feel sick because he just changed Darvish into a deal that portends a tough 2021 season, and perhaps beyond, for the puppies.
As of this writing, Darvish is in the process of being passed on to the San Diego Padres in a classic present-future deal. The puppies return to the reconstruction game. They …