Yu Darvish threw a baseball a couple of dozen times on Monday from 45 feet, and as mundane as that sounds, it's a pretty big deal.
Darvish, of course, underwent Tommy John surgery before the season began, and on Monday he was able to take that big first step toward recovery.
The plan for Darvish is to do this a few times a week, see how he does and how he feels and then gradually increase the distance.
Darvish has to be enjoying his view from the Rangers' dugout at the moment, and if this team can get into the postseason without their ace for the entire year, you'd think it'd give him greater incentive to want to sign here long term in the next couple of years.
The hope seems to be for Darvish to return to the Rangers' rotation by May of next season, if not sooner, so while it's a ways off, Monday's step was a big one.