It’s time for Cubs right-hander Yu Darvish to take a bow.
No, the National League Cy Young Award winner won’t be announced for another few weeks, but what Darvish accomplished in 2020 shouldn’t go unnoticed.
Darvish struggled mightily after the Cubs signed him to a six-year, $126 million deal as a free agent in 2018. During those struggles, many not only questioned his ability to be an ace, they also questioned whether he was capable of handling the pressure and expectations of living up to his contract.
But Darvish began to put some of those questions to bed in the second half of 2019, then wiped them all out with a stellar 2020 season that saw him become one of the best starters in the game.
‘‘I’m definitely not the best right now, but I think I can be better in a few years,’’ Darvish, 34, said.
Darvish put an exclamation point on his standout season in the Cubs’ 2-0 loss Friday to the Marlins that eliminated them from the NL wild-card round in two games. He allowed two runs and five hits and struck out six in 6 2/3 innings.
‘‘He’s been throwing up a lot of zeros for us this year,’’ manager David Ross said. ‘‘I can’t say enough about Yu. What a phenomenal year. He put us in this position to be in the postseason. Him and [fellow right-hander] Kyle [Hendricks] just had phenomenal years.
‘‘It was fun to be his manager and watch him pitch every day. He’s a true professional, and [I’m] very proud of the year he had.’’
Darvish finished the regular season 8-3 with a 2.01 ERA in 12 starts and likely will cap his 2020 with a top-two finish in NL Cy Young voting.
‘‘He’s been a true ace this year,’’ president Theo Epstein said last week. ‘‘Such an important part of this club in terms of performance and leading the league in WAR among pitchers and what that meant to us on the field. And the innings, the shutdown innings. He’s given us the opportunity to win.’’
Veteran left-hander Jon Lester was scheduled to pitch had the Cubs made it to Game 3 on Saturday, but the loss meant there would be no opportunity for him to pitch one more time at Wrigley Field — at least this season.
While Darvish did everything he could to get the ball to Lester, the storybook ending wasn’t in the cards.
‘‘I’m very sad,’’ Darvish said. ‘‘My focus today was to have Lester pitch one more start at the Wrigley Field. That was my goal today, and I couldn’t make that happen.’’
