The Cubs announced Wednesday that they’ve placed closer Brandon Morrow on the 10-day disabled list, retroactive to June 17. Morrow was unavailable in yesterday’s doubleheader due to back spasms. Right-hander Justin Hancock, whom the Cubs recalled to serve as the 26th man in yesterday’s twin bill, will remain on the roster for the time being. To this point in the season, Morrow has made good on the Cubs’ two-year, $21MM investment, pitching to a 1.59 ERA with 9.9 K/9, 3.6 BB/9 and 0.4 HR/9 with a career-best 53.6 percent ground-ball rate through 22 2/3 innings. Chicago has been cautious in its usage of Morrow in an effort to protect the injury-prone righty’s arm; he’s yet to pitch more than an inning in any appearance, and he hasn’t pitched on three consecutive days all season. There’s no indication as to how long Morrow will be expected to miss, though there’s little reason to believe that this’ll be a lengthy absence. With Morrow on the disabled list, righties Steve Cishek and Pedro Strop stand out as the likeliest candidates to get the call in save opportunities.
More injury news from around the game…
- A fractured left index finger landed Nationals first baseman/outfielder Matt Adams on the 10-day disabled list Tuesday. There’s no word yet as to exactly how long he’s expected to miss, though his absence will surely be felt when the Nats face right-handed pitchers. As has been the case throughout his career, Adams has floundered against lefties this season but thrived when holding the platoon advantage. He’s clobbering opposing righties at a career-best .283/.364/.614 clip this season and has belted a dozen homers in 143 plate appearances against right-handed opponents. With Adams joining Ryan Zimmermann on the DL, it was Daniel Murphy who stepped up at first base last night. Both Murphy and Mark Reynolds figure to be options there moving forward.
- Padres fans are holding their breath as they await a new diagnosis on outfielder Franchy Cordero, whose rehab has been shut down entirely, as Dennis Lin of The Athletic tweets. Cordero, who began a minor league rehab assignment this week, “felt something” in his elbow while taking a swing in one of those rehab games, according to Lin. He was evaluated by Dr. Neal ElAttrache yesterday. While there’s been no official word from the team just yet, it’s an ominous-sounding injury at a time when the organization hoped Cordero was nearing a return to the lineup. The 23-year-old Cordero hit .237/.307/.439 through 154 PAs early in the season and had developed a penchant for off-the-charts exit velocity and distance projections from Statcast thanks to his light-tower raw power.
- The Braves, meanwhile, are hopeful that they’ll get a pair of key players back in the near future. David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tweeted last night that Ronald Acuna has upped the intensity of his workouts over the past two days and is expected to be cleared to begin what sounds like it’ll be a brief minor league rehab assignment “real soon.” Atlanta is also tentatively planning on activating righty Mike Foltynewicz for Sunday’s start against the Orioles, tweets Mark Bowman of MLB.com. While that’s the organizational hope, however, the team won’t use right-hander Brandon McCarthy in relief until there’s greater certainty about the availability of Foltynewicz, who is on the shelf due to a minor triceps issue. If Foltynewicz is determined unready for Sunday’s outing, then, it seems McCarthy will get the ball in his place.
With Morrow on the DL, the Cubs should try to nab Chapman from the Yankees
Why would the Yankees trade Chapman right now?
Cubs have a need and the Yankees have plenty of other relief arms they could use to fill in for Chapman. Besides, with the way the Yankees strike out, they’ll be hovering around .500 come late July, so they’ll be in selling mode.
Even the Yankees thought about that idea, they no longer have the farm to acquire him.
Now, why would one of the best teams in baseball give up their elite closer ?
To do that they would have to have a historically bad run from now until then.
Why even entertain this idiot
Don’t feed the troll.
For rizzo obviously
Now how the heck is that fair??? They could get Chapman for a few low A ball guys.
Pretty sure this is sarcasm guys lol
I think it was sarcasm lol
Please cut the obvious trolling. It’s nice that you signed up to comment here, but between this and the Mookie Betts for Brad Hand thing in another post, it’s obvious you’re just trying to get a rise out of other commenters. Hopefully you can find reason to continue to join the discussion beyond trolling.
Thanks.
Thank you, Steve. I, for one, appreciate the comment back at that post. I certainly like to even repsect the negative comments those make due to the dislike for a team, but the absolutely ridiculous and stupid trolling does get annoying when you have to scroll through them.
“Please cut the obvious trolling.”
Thank you for taking a stand against this sort of blatant trolling/flamebait before it infected the entire thread. Wish other MLBTR writers would do the same in their threads. Decrease the appeal to and reward for bigpapi4ever (sp?) type trolls. Good, quick action, Steve.
“Hopefully you can find reason to continue . . . beyond trolling.”
Hopefully you won’t suspend respiration awaiting a positive contribution from this alleged ‘baseballfan’.
Some idiots are so transparently pathetic, they’ll say anything for attention, even if it’s negative attention. I’ve never understood the point to trolling, it takes a special kind of idiocy to want to be a troll.
hope steve can forward this same message to that Caseys Partner jackass
We dont have the minor league talent, plus Morrow should have a short stint. Heck we already gave you Gleyber!
And they gave us a World Series
The Cordero thing is monumental. He’s totally the difference between the Padres finishing last or last……
Cubs Boone Logan is available go after him!!!
Really think Nationals should go after Domingo Santana for first with trading some of their younger prospects. But I also think they should get what they can with trading Harper now. Then they could go with Soto and Robles. They might even be better without him.
I really doubt the likely nl east champs would trade there MVP in a playoff run the fan favorite it’s just not happening, also wouldn’t you imagine Washington going full steam after Bryce what’s the likeliness of a return after he’s traded ? Not trying to be rude just the things I see wrong
“ . . . they should get what they can with trading Harper now.”
1. There is a zero percent chance that the Nats trade Harper. He isn’t just their best player he’s the face of the franchise.
2. I can’t even imagine circumstances under which the Nats would be willing to trade him and another team would be willing to acquire him. IOW, he would/will not be traded for performance or contract reasons. Harper would have to do something really bad—most likely off field—to make the Nats want to dump him. Something so bad that other teams wouldn’t want him either. Doesn’t appear much of a risk there as Harper is kinda boring off field.
“Then they could go with Soto and Robles.”
Robles is on the DL. Else he would already have displaced MA Taylor in CF.
“They might even be better without him.”
They might end up having more postseason success that way but it wouldn’t be because they’re better without him. That’s just silly. The Nats are gonna win a playoff series one of these years with or without Harper. Methinks keeping Harper around improves their chances.
I think the Braves need to just go get Moose now so he gets settled in
Unless moose is only going to cost a lottery ticket, it’s not wise trading for him.
Having Cishek has been a HUGE closer insurance policy for the Cubs. They basically have two closers, as Cishek used to close. Guys has been lights out.
And Wilson has been darn good this season, particularly the last six weeks. He didn’t get a borderline callagainst Turner on a third strike in the ninth yesterday and Turner came through and then the two out, two strike hit. He had given up only one run in 19+ innings since May 1 before that. Still some viable options in the pen although losing Edwards and Morrow at the same time will test the depth.
Rosario has been impressive too!
Rosario has been a pleasant surprise. Great attitude from interviews I’ve seen
Til he got hammered by the Reds last night… Maddon has overused him.
when I heard that Morrow threw out his back by taking off his pants, I imagined some kind of Sam Malone pants trick was going on…lmao
It’s the goat he’s back and ready for round two to get his streak back on track lol
Who is this Sam Malone person you speak of?
Sports writers said the Cubs won’t need a closer vs last place reds. They were absolutely right.
He was taking his pants off at 3 in the morning so the question should be where was he till 3 and was he ending the evening or starting the fun
Another Sam Malone type moment…lol