Major League Baseball

Fantasy impact: Yu Darvish may need Tommy John, could miss four months

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 9:28 p.m. ET

Ryan Fowler

Why can't fantasy baseball owners and the Texas Rangers have nice things?

Two weeks after the organization lost top prospect Jurickson Profar for what is assumed the entire season, the Rangers could also be on the verge of losing their ace pitcher for all of 2015. An MRI showed Yu Darvish has a sprained UCL. It's also the ligament front offices and pitchers never want to hear. A bad UCL could lead Darivsh down the Tommy John highway, which removes him from the bump for at least a year.

You may remember Darvish was shut down at the end of the 2014 season due to inflammation in his pitching elbow. The team and Darvish did say he'll get second opinions and could just rest, but rest equals for months of exactly that - rest - and no work on the bump.

Darvish ranks SP11 and 33rd overall in our most recent fantasy baseball update published earlier this week. The 28-year-old pitcher finished 10-7 with a K/9 rate of 11.35 and 3.06 ERA (2.96 xFIP) last season before resting down the stretch. He's punched out 680 batters in 545 innings of work over the past three MLB seasons.

It may go without saying, but right now Darvish is a poisoned pill in re-draft fantasy baseball leagues. If you want to gamble in later rounds, go for it, but you have to believe the writing is on the wall and he's done. For those fantasy owners in keeper leagues, Darvish will still only be 29 when he returns in 2016. It's just a shame we will most likely miss out seeing him in action the next six months. Stupid UCL's.

Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Top 300 | C | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | OF | SP | RP

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