One question about Cubs’ Kyle Hendricks getting Opening Day nod over Yu Darvish: Why?

Kyle Hendricks, yes.

Yu Darvish, no.

A pitcher Cubs manager David Ross knows he can count on to take the mound July 24 against the Brewers at Wrigley Field and do his thing, yes.

One who has had more downs than ups in Chicago and done pretty much everything except win like he was supposed to, no.

Ross didn’t really surprise those around the team Thursday by naming Hendricks the team’s starter for Opening Day, but the question is: Why did he do it?

Is it because Hendricks is, as Ross contends, the furthest along of the Cubs starters in preparation for the season? He did throw 70 pitches in his most recent intrasquad scrimmage appearance, a locked-in six-plus innings Tuesday in which he resembled the very best version of himself. He also outpitched Darvish, who threw 60 pitches and looked much less comfortable.

According to Ross, the scrimmage merely confirmed what he already knew.

“I told you a long time ago it’s going to matter who’s stretched out and can go deep,” he said. “I think he was [capable of] 75 pitches the other day. He’s further along than any of our starters. … He’s the one that’s ready. It was an easy indication. I’ve had that in my mind for a little while, but I just didn’t want to jump the gun.”

Yet the difference between July 24 and July 25, when Darvish will make his first start, is — hang on, still doing the math here — one day. More accurately, the start times of Games 1 and 2 are separated by less than 18 hours. If the plan is for Darvish to go to bed and wake up a new man, it seems a bit ambitious.

Is this less about going with Hendricks than it is about not going with Darvish?

The Cubs signed Darvish heading into 2018 to take the ball in situations like this, especially once Jon Lester lost his standing as the team’s ace, which is the case now. Lester — the team’s Opening Day starter four of the last five years — knows that better than anyone.

“I know I’m not the ace of this staff, but you know what? I think that’s a good thing,” he said at spring training in Mesa, Ariz. “I hope that maybe I’ve done something here to rub off on Kyle Hendricks or maybe rub off on Yu Darvish to allow them to take over that role.”

But when Darvish hasn’t lost games as a Cub, he has been injured. And when he hasn’t been injured, he has worried about failing to live up to expectations that came with his $126 million contract. And when he hasn’t worried — and got on a real roll during the second half of last season — he still hasn’t managed to win games.

The Cubs were 13-18 in Darvish’s starts in 2019. He is 7-11 as a Cub and 24-28 (with three teams) since returning to the mound from Tommy John surgery in 2016.

Everything is skewed as the Cubs and 29 other teams rush back to readiness for a season that is both scary and strange, so it would be unfair to look at not getting this assignment as a failing on Darvish’s part. But it’s Hendricks — never accused of having anything close to a classic ace’s pure talent — who was ready to seize this moment. The guy with 10 or 11 pitches in an almost incomparable arsenal wasn’t.

It might be as Darvish wanted it. As he said earlier in the week: “Well, you know, we’ve got Lester and Hendricks still. I’m going to stay behind those guys.”

Are we selling Hendricks short here? Is this assignment really about how good he has been throughout his years with the Cubs? Did he straight-up earn and deserve it?

Call it a combination of all of the above. Yes, Hendricks — as sharp as they come — plans to have 100 pitches in him by the opener, and that’s impressive in this crazy time in baseball. Yes, Hendricks has an improved curveball to complement his confounding fastball-changeup combo, not to mention an all-too-rare blend of preparedness and command. Yes, he is stronger, too, no longer perceived by his team as a twice-through-the-order pitcher.

“I want to be that guy for my team,” he said, “just to be out there, take the ball every fifth day and go deep, go deep in games and eat up innings.”

It would be the next step for a pitcher who long has, in subtle ways, set the bar as a Cub and certainly has risen to the grandest occasions. He outpitched Dodgers superstar Clayton Kershaw in the decisive Game 6 of the 2016 NLCS. He led the Cubs in Game 7 of the World Series against the Indians. And he wore the visage of someone so unaffected by pressure, it might as well have been a camp scrimmage.

“I’ve seen the same guy every time he’s out there on the bump,” Ross said.

We’ll see him again on Opening Day. Darvish will have one of the best seats in the house.