It's safe to say nobody was satisfied with Yu Darvish's first season in Chicago.

Not Theo Epstein's front office. Not the Cubs fanbase. Not Darvish himself.

But five years still remain on Darvish's $126 million deal, pitting the veteran right-hander as one of the most intriguging Cubs players entering 2019.

Darvish didn't throw a pitch for the Cubs after Memorial Day Weekend, first hitting the disabled list with a triceps issue which was later identified as a bone bruise in his throwing arm. The 32-year-old also needed a debridement procedure to clear up his right elbow just three years after Tommy John surgery.

All told, Darvish threw just 40 innings for the Cubs in Year 1, posting a 4.95 ERA and finished with fewer wins than guys like Brandon Kintzler, Luke Farrell and Brian Duensing.

The Cubs expect Darvish to be ready for spring training 2019 and the hope from both sides is they can hit the reset button.

Alec Mills is a guy Epstein points to as proof pitchers can overcome bone bruises, as the Cubs swingman sat out most of 2017 with the same injury.

An offseason of rest should do wonders for Darvish's bone bruise after he threw 201.1 innings in 2017 between the regular season and the Los Angeles Dodgers' World Series run.

"The bone bruise was the primary injury here, but you also had the elbow clean-up," Epstein said the day after the Cubs were eliminated from the 2018 playoffs. "That's a procedure, so it went well, but it was sort of a minor clean-up. But anytime there's a procedure, it introduces some risk.

"I think we're really, really excited to have a healthy, impactful Yu Darvish, but we also have to build a lot of depth and backup plans. Because if we go down the same road that we went down this year and it costs us the season, that's on me. That's on us.

"We talked about that this year, too. Can you expect him to come back? Well, we hoped he would come back, but in the end, he wasn't able to and that's part of the reason we got Cole Hamels and our starting rotation ended up being a strength."

That's yet another strong statement from Epstein in favor of bringing Hamels back for 2019 on the $20 million team option.

Bringing Hamels back gives the Cubs a heap of options for next season's rotation, including:

Darvish

Hamels

Jon Lester

Kyle Hendricks

Jose Quintana

Drew Smyly

Tyler Chatwood

Mike Montgomery

But with that depth also comes a lot of questions marks.

Can Chatwood move beyond his woeful command issues? Will the Cubs even let him do that or will they cut their losses and try to move him this winter?

Montgomery can pitch in the bullpen and serve as rotation depth in case of injury, but will he be able to swallow that role once again when he's been so outspoken of getting a legit chance to start?

Is Smyly better served in the bullpen since he's coming off Tommy John surgery and hasn't pitched in a big-league game in two years?

Both Hamels and Lester are about to turn 35 by the start of the 2019 season — can they continue to avoid injury and make 30+ starts again next year?

And then of course the big one — can Darvish stay healthy and effective? Remember, this is a guy who strikes out 11 batters per 9 innings over his career, but also hasn't been a reliable pitcher in over a calendar year — since before he got lit up by the Astros in the 2017 World Series.

All these questions are proof the Cubs need as much rotation depth as they can handle.

Like Epstein always says — he and the rest of the front office try to evaluate their team based off what could go wrong and sink the season. Having too few reliable starters is obviously something that could derail the Cubs' championship hopes in 2019.

"We have to take the same approach this winter," Epstein said. "I fully expect [Darvish] to be healthy and go do his thing and punch out a lot of guys and be part of a really great starting staff next year. But if, for whatever reason — with any of our guys — it doesn't happen, we can't let one injury sink our season.

"And we're set up to have some depth in the starting staff next year. We're nto looking to get rid of starting pitchers. We're looking to have as much depth as possible so we can withstand multiple injuries.