The Cubs received some comforting news Wednesday when an MRI revealed no structural damage in the right triceps of pitcher Yu Darvish.
Darvish was diagnosed with right triceps inflammation and will look to begin a throwing program late this weekend or early next week.
The diagnosis means that left-hander Mike Montgomery, who threw 5 2/3 shutout innings Monday in his first start of the season, could make at least two more starts _ Saturday night against the Mets and the following weekend against the Pirates.
During a Wednesday morning interview on WSCR-AM 670, Cubs pitching coach Jim Hickey said he thought Darvish "will join us today in Pittsburgh or meet us in New York."
"We're giving it a couple of days to calm down, four to five days to resume throwing activities. It was something that was bothering him, but he was getting better prior to (his last) start. He was telling me it was 70-80 percent, but it didn't quite get there and we didn't see the need to push it."
As for Tyler Chatwood, who has walked an NL-high 45 batters, Hickey said: "Tyler has met these problems head-on. He's not running from the fact that he's having a hard time throwing the ball over the plate. He's working hard to overcome this, and he's an extremely good athlete. Whatever I'd ask him to try, he'd probably have some success with. We're working to get things right. We're not going to turn him into Greg Maddux, but if we can get to the point where he's walking four guys per nine innings, we'd have a serviceable pitcher."
Asked if the Cubs are considering having Chatwood pitch exclusively from the stretch, Hickey replied: "We're considering that, yes. But if you look at his walk rate out of the stretch, it's not much better than the windup. Maybe it would help because it takes his mind off one thing ... I would consider anything, really."
