Several circles formed in a tiny, quiet visiting clubhouse Thursday night at Wrigley Field as the San Diego Padres assessed a season cut short.

The biggest was the one that congregated around 22-year-old Jackson Merrill, the future of a team with many pieces in place next year. That group included the likes of Nick Pivetta and Gavin Sheets, all of them with a beer in hand as they chatted quietly amid reporters shuffling between lockers.

Off to the side, a 39-year-old Yu Darvish sat next to a 33-year-old Manny Machado as pitching coach Ruben Niebla stopped by.

They are cornerstone pieces, too, but the shortest start of Darvish’s long, storied carried only sharpened the focus on an ailing right elbow that sidelined him for parts of the last three seasons and was an issue for him even afte

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