Although the bullpen has held up extremely well in his absence – especially fill-in closer Pedro Strop – there’s no question that the overall picture is brighter for the Cubs when Brandon Morrow is back and healthy and pitching like he’s capable.
To that end, he was finally able to get back on the mound yesterday after missing more than a month with a biceps injury, which apparently also now involves the bones in his elbow:
Morrow described his injury as a “bone bruise,” and “stress reaction.” Nevertheless, he threw 25 pitches off a mound. Said he hadn’t lost strength despite minor discomfort. Probably 2-3 more bullpens before minor league assignment
— Mark Gonzales (@MDGonzales) August 18, 2018
Morrow tells Cubs.com that he can pitch right now, even with the discomfort, and that might just be the way it is until the offseason: “I thought [the bullpen] was OK. I threw the ball really well. [There’s] just stuff sticking around that I think I’m going to have to live with the rest of the year. So if it holds up and stays the same, I think I should be good.”
The risk – beyond a worse injury or re-injury – is that he may feel like he’s pitching well through the discomfort, but just the tiniest bit of lost spin, plus the tiniest bit of lost command, plus the tiniest bit of lost velocity could all conspire together to make him a dramatically less effective pitcher. But you can’t really know until a guy gets back out there and shows what he’s got down the stretch. And if there’s not enough time left for him to get to 100% and then also return to pitch meaningful innings, well, you kinda just have to make a decision about whether you want to roll the dice.
To that end, the hope is that Morrow could be off to a minor league rehab assignment after a couple bullpens this week, then a simulated game. So, it’s conceivable he could be on a rehab assignment as soon as the end of next week, which is also the end of the month. That would put him on track to return in the first week of September, which works out well for roster purposes, too.