The bullpen looks awful right now, well it’s really Steve Cishek and Carl Edwards Jr., who have been great all year long, but are all of a sudden shaky at best. It doesn’t help that Brandon Morrow’s been out for almost two months, but there’s finally some positive news, well kind of.
Wednesday will essentially determine if Morrow comes back this season. The good news is that he threw 25 pitches in a bullpen session Sunday, and although it was described as a “light bullpen session,” Morrow threw again on flat ground Monday and said he felt good.
So, the next step is another bullpen session on Wednesday and if everything goes right, Morrow and the Cubs are optimistic that he can return to the team by the end of the weekend at the earliest.
Morrow said he feels good. Threw off flat ground Monday again too.
Plan is for him to throw a bullpen Wednesday again as he ramps back up to rejoin the roster hopefully by end of weekend or early next week (the target date he/Cubs have had in mind).
— Tony Andracki (@TonyAndracki23) September 11, 2018
Something that you have to keep in mind is that even if all goes well and Morrow does come back within the next week, he’ll be limited. Joe Maddon has already said that Morrow will be eased back in and won’t be available to pitch on consecutive days.
Probably no shot of Morrow being able to pitch on back-to-back days if he returns, Maddon said.
So there are so many question marks left in this whole thing. Will Morrow come back? If so, will he be effective? Will his velocity be there? How many pitches would be his limit?
— Tony Andracki (@TonyAndracki23) September 6, 2018
So, fingers crossed for Wednesday’s bullpen session. Any setback and Morrow will most likely be shut down for the year.
