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In April, the Cubs made the unfortunate announcement that they were shutting down right-handed pitcher Brandon Morrow. He missed almost all of the second half in 2018 with an arm injury and then had surgery in November to clean up his right elbow. Since then the Cubs knew he wasn’t going to be ready to rejoin the team until May.
Morrow was passing every test during Spring Training and was on schedule to face live hitters in April. He then felt pain and the Cubs had to press pause on his return.
On Monday, Morrow received a lubrication injection in his elbow. The good news is that there is no structural damage for Morrow, just some irritation in the area where he had surgery in November.
However, this latest setback will keep Morrow from throwing for at least a few weeks and the earliest projection for his return is sometime near the All-Star break.
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With Morrow’s extensive history of arm issues, the Cubs simply can’t count on him returning. Yet, Theo Epstein did sound confident that Morrow will pitch again this year for the Cubs.
Via the Chicago Sun-Times.
‘‘I think he will; I think he’ll come back,’’ team president Theo Epstein said Tuesday of Morrow, who was dominant in the first half of last season before the elbow sidelined him the entire second half. ‘‘Obviously, there’s a risk. There’s a risk with his injury history and things that have happened even here. But we’re hopeful that he’ll help us [this summer].’’
Before going down in July last year, Morrow recorded 22 saves, posting a 1.47 ERA in 30.2 innings.
Fingers crossed, I guess.
As far as the rest of the bullpen, can you believe that since April 7, the Cubs bullpen has a 2.02 ERA, which is the best in MLB? Well, it’s true! That’s the day after the Cubs sent Carl Edwards Jr. to Iowa and placed Mike Montgomery on the injured list.
During this stretch of success from the bullpen, batters haven’t been hitting for much power at all, slugging .295 against Cubs relievers. That .295 slugging % also leads all bullpens since April 7.
This group has been able to put it together and although there still haven been some shaky outings, for the most part the bullpen is getting the job done since the Cubs made two big moves after the first week of the season.
