Cubs reliever Brandon Morrow has suffered a setback in his recovery from elbow surgery, President Theo Epstein told reporters including Jordan Bastian of MLB.com. He’ll miss the remainder of the season.
While the precise nature of the setback is not yet known, Bruce Levine of 670 The Score reports that Morrow will require another procedure to correct the issue. A timeline for Morrow’s recovery is not yet known.
After undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his right elbow in the offseason, there were always questions whether the right-hander would be able to pitch for the Cubs in 2019, but optimism seemed to be building as Morrow built his workload up in hopes of making a September return.
Morrow’s injury history with the Cubs dates back to last season’s All-Star break, when a biceps injury cost him much of the second half of the season before giving way to elbow problems that necessitated last November’s surgery. He last pitched for the Cubs on July 15 of last year. Earlier this month, it looked as though that might change as Morrow began throwing off a mound, but his progress halted there and his Cubs tenure is effectively over.
With a 2019 return now out of the question, Morrow’s season will go down as one in which he has been unable to appear in a single game for the Cubs, who doled out $21MM in guaranteed money to bring the 35-year-old aboard after a breakout 2017 season with the Dodgers.
In light of Morrow’s recent setback, that two-year contract looks in hindsight to be an utter misstep by the Chicago front office. With a $12MM team option for 2020 that will almost surely not be exercised, Morrow will have appeared in just 35 games over his Cubs tenure—none of which came in the postseason. To be fair, Morrow has been reliable when he has been on the field—posting a 1.47 ERA in a half-season’s worth of games in Chicago—but such a drastic lack of availability paints an unpleasant picture of the Cubs’ hefty investment in the veteran.
Not surprising. Only that it took this long. Elbows never heal quickly. Should of just moved on earlier.
S-yit !! Another reliever Dombrowski missed on. How could he be so stupid?
Collect the insurance money. See ya.
The Troy Tulowitzki, Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia of pitchers.
Grady Sizemore of pitching.. Great talent cant stay healthy…
Grady Sizemore didcnt have a elbow surgery your wrong there my friend
You’re missing
the point!
From an injury perspective…not sure Morrow was ever as talented as those guys
He never put together the great seasons those guys did, but Morrow’s talent ceiling was always sky high. There’s a reason Toronto kept him in the rotation for so long; when he was “on” and healthy he was a true ace. There were few pitchers in the game better than a healthy Brandon Morrow in his prime. It’s just that we only saw it a half a dozen times.
True ace stuff, never close to an ace.
Never counted on him coming back, I assumed Morrow was never going to pitch for the Cubs again.
Time for Morrow to hang them up
And what happened to that great Cubs dynasty we kept hearing so much about? Oh yeah,, Tanked, got lucky with Bryant falling to them and did good job scouting Areitta & Hendricks.
Got lucky in 2016 and played unhealthy teams and eked out a title, but get destroyed whenever they play healthy teams.
Yawn
Wonder what it must be like to be so negative. Could you tell me?
Who is your team teufelshunde4? Cubs won in 2016 , Astros 2017 and Red Sox in 2018. Six won’t even make playoffs this year and Astros didn’t repeat. Are you a two time dodgers loser fan ?? Got Darvish and machado and still couldn’t win? Maybe a Yankees fan and got Torres and Chapman back and still can’t win ?? Baseball is different then football and basketball : last team to win back to back was 90’s yankees . Idiot
Dodgers are what the Cubs were hyped to be, a team that can actually maintain long term success. Keep their name out your mouth.
So being in the playoffs 4 straight years, 3 straight NLCS appearances and a World Series championship isn’t maintaining success? And the Dodgers have basically done the same thing, minus the whole “winning a World Series” over the same 4 years but somehow they have long term success? Interesting logic.
The Cubs expectations were much higher than lose an NLCS in 5 and get embarrassed out of 2018 after their title. The Dodgers have a much better chance a title now and in the future. The Cubs cant even pull away in a mediocre division race
Dodgers are about to win their 7th straight division title. That’s pretty much long term success right there.
Big Fred… How many rings was that? Didn’t quite hear you.
Red Sox, 4 in 15 years. Down this year but we’ll be back. Hoping for a Yankees Dodgers World Series like the old days.
Cubs actually won World Series when they made it . So only one appearance and winning it is better than being back to back World Series losers and maybe third time loser this year. Mets or nationals will probably beat them
@GMaddux31 is spot on. Hard to argue this.
And how many WS titles? Our that’s right….
Gary, judging by your comment. You are a BoSox fan. How the hell can you root a kind of WS matchup that includes the Stinkees?
Cubs have made the playoffs 4 straight years and have a good chance to make it 5. They also won a World Series . Where do you trolls come from? The only comparable team the last 5 years would be the Astros.
Because bosox2004, I realize that we’re falling a little short this year. I want to watch an interesting world series on TV.. so go Yankees and Dodgers. I just love baseball. Hope the YANKEES LOSE by the way.
CJML, Astros ?
Red Sox the champions of all of baseball in 2013 and 2018. I’d put that ahead of the Astros.
Dodgers choked vs the mets in 2015. More. Specifically clayton Kershaw choked
I wouldn’t say he’s wrong….Cubs fans did make it seem like they’d win it every year
Shortest dynasty in the history of sports
Shortest dynasty occurred in 2005, by a team that has only made it back to the playoffs once since in 2008.
I wouldn’t say dynasty in ’05. That WS run was nothing short of complete dominance though.
Looking back, we could’ve ponied up for Crash and still moved on Thome. But Crash wanted more than he was worth, and we just can’t do that.
Ouch!
A team that’s tagged as “lovable losers” finally gets a good young team together.
Their fans experience joy in 2016. Like anyone else, they dream of more & get excited. Now they’re criticized by trolls on a Cubs article because their team didn’t do what no team has done since the ‘90’s.
Crash?
Aaron Rowand.
I Hit the like button twice…
Just like the Cubs World Series run. It only counted for once.
Teuf——for all we know they still may be at the start of it. You forgot about the good job on acquiring Lester, Rizzo, Russell, Fowler, Chapman, Strop, Zobrist, Rondon, Montgomery, Edwards, etc. Keep trying to minimalize these five years. And “eke-ing” out a title looks pretty nice on my ring finger.
Heard a great interview with Derek Holland today who LOVES social media and when people trolled him after giving up his first home run to a lefty in two years the other day. “The people that troll are those that are dreaming about living the dream that others are in.”
Mike127…I can’t tell if you’re sarcastic or not because I wouldn’t count all those acquisitions as good moves
100% serious——which of what I mentioned did not contributed heavily in 2016 (to which my answer to Teuf was)? I also didn’t mention Lackey, Montero, Hammel, etc.
Lester was #2 or #3 starter. Rizzo was the first baseman, Russell was the shortstop, Fowler was the leadoff guy and played center. Chapman was the closer down the stretch. Strop and Rondon did a pretty good job before Chapman and injuries. Montgomery and Edwards were key pieces to the bullpen.
Teuf was quick to point out “tanking” as well. Other than Kris Bryant, nobody on that team contributed to that season with at any major level that was a draft pick of Theo and Jed. Nobody. That team won with all the acquisitions I mentioned above.
Going forth did they all pan out much later? Nope. But for that moment in time, they all did….and my answer was to Teuf who so eagerly pointed out how lucky they were.
mike127: I seem to recall that Almora Jr. was a pretty big contributor to that 2016 title.
Almora had exactly 117 plate appearances—-about half of what Matt Szczur had. He had one more home run than Jake Arrieta. I tried to highlight the “season”, not an individual pinch running performance. Not a big contributor to the entire year. (At least not the level that “tanking” was the reason the Cubs won it all).
Russell, Strop, Rondon and Edwards. ….. great acquisitions? Really?
Mistry—-if I could type in crayon so you could understand, I would. Read the thread—-it was in response to the lucky 2016 championship that cubs won according to Teuf. All of the above were key pieces in 2016. Three key bullpen pieces and your starting shortstop for Garza, Samardzija, and Feldman seemed to work out pretty well. Even this year I doubt that Garza, Samardzija, and Feldman would be in the Cubs rotation.
Shark getting ready to serve some taters tomorrow.
Mike- maybe Holland should pay more attention to pitching and less to social media
Someone call the whambulance.
Cub fans are so clever. Try putting in just a little more effort on your trolling.
Salty AF
That’s a quality comment right there…….if your 12.
Seeing how you’re still mad the giants and Indians choked in the playoffs in 2016. I’d say it was true. You jumped on both bandwagons during the playoffs. Wanted so bad to see the Cubs lose. And when the Cubs came back from 2 runs down in game 4 of the nlds..you took a Cleveland approach and burned your jason schmidt jersey.
Then the cubs made the world series. they won. And you again burned your Indians jersey you bought 3 days prior. And burned your Pedro cerrano Jersey.
Hey now Teufel. They won a championship far and square. It’s ok every 100 years or so to win one. Now they’ve got plenty to brag about for the next 100 years.
I agree they should have won more with the talent they have, I don’t agree that they got lucky in 2016. Unless every team in the NL was not healthy, how could they have won 103 games playing only unhealthy teams? Plus their defense was otherworldly that year, best in the league by far. They got lucky only in the WS because Tito stupidly pitched his #3 starter in Game 5. The Indians should have finished them off in Chicago but gave them life instead.
The Cubs since 2016 have lacked a cohesiveness. In 2015 and 2016, they played with a chip on their shoulders and they won and won a lot. They have loads of talent, but can’t seem to find the winning combination anymore.
They won in spite of Maddon, NOT because of him. Go away Joe!
“The won in spite of Maddon”…..can you back that up with some facts? I can respect your opinion, but that’s all it is. How about the fact that he was down 3-1 in the World Series and won it. That’s a fact. How about 8 of the last ten years, he’s won 90+ games. That’s a fact. How about the fact that Tampa hasn’t made the playoffs and the Cubs haven’t missed the playoffs since he left Tampa.
I know, you’re going to tell me that he ran Chapman into the ground and he gave up a homer—-I get it—-but, Francona ran Miller into the ground (exact same stats as Chapman in WS) and he gave up a pretty big homer in game seven also (Ross).. A fact that few ever bring up. Or the fact that Francona used all his players and had to bat Martinez in the tenth.
You don’t win becasue of a manager…..you don’t lose because of a manager. Managers “manage” and Maddon has proven pretty good at it.
Win or lose, you will probably get your wish
Spot on!
The grass isn’t always greener. Prior to Maddon and Theo the cubs never and I mean never had sustained success. It was always 1 maybe 2 years spurts. I would personally be stunned and disappointed if they dumped Maddon.
That’s mostly because they didn’t get enough pitching prospects while they were tanking, and it’s caught up with them. Aside from Hendricks, they’ve been mostly forced to rely on free agency and trades to get good pitching, and it’s often either blown up in their faces (Chatwood, Morrow, Darvish so far, etc.), started out well only to decline later (Lackey, Montgomery, Lester to a degree, etc.), or only wound up decent at best (Quintana).
Bryant falling to them…lol fell quite a ways, didnt he? only 1/15 of the league has won a title since then and they’re still a talanted team with young superstars. they still have time to win.
@ Teuf
Scumbag.
But they got a title. All that matters
Insecure Cardinals fan.
Does this mean the 2004 and 2005 Cardinals were UNLUCKY after winning 100 or more games each of those years only to LOSE in the playoffs and get SWEPT in a WS? Interesting how one defines “luck”. The best definition of luck is, “when preparation meets opportunity”. I guess the 2004-2005 Cardinals led by HOF manager, Tony LaRussa, just weren’t prepared?
Actually the Cardinals were well prepared but just worn out after a tough battle for the NLCS with the Astros…that actually was well documented how tired the cardinals were…plus they did run into bad luck because like the Cubs in 2016, it was almost destined for the Red Sox to win a Championship…not to mention the Cardinals should have been awarded home field advantage but that was when the stupid rule about winning the All-star game was in place…that is by all means crappy luck
$18MM for 30 and 2/3’s inning pitched.
Holy crap.
It was 2/21mil actually.
That’s only about $700K per inning. No big deal.
I am sure an insurance company paid most of it. There are worse contracts out there and considering they got a half year of dominance it could of been worse.
In other stunning developments…..
What a piece of trash . These players want guaranteed money but can steal from teams when hurt
that’s what guaranteed is, and i dont think they guy wants to be hurt.
Mikel- the fault is on the Cubs who paid an injury prone pitcher,not the pitcher for being hurt.
Any knowledgeable poster could have predicted this happening.
Why couldn’t Theo do the same?
No wonder Cubs ownership were leery to spend any more money this year.
Cubs owners needed every extra dollar to give to Trump the Antichrist!
So, the dude pitched for roughly 25% of his contract duration and he gets 100% of the money? Is that right? Seems kinda off given that Zo didn’t get paid the past few months. Of course, this is an injury rather than personal reasons, but still.
That’s why teams insure contracts buddy…Zobrist isn’t getting paid because he stepped away…and partly because he’s been lousy and the Cubs are more than happy to keep the $$
Solid Snake, go ahead and offer guys non-guaranteed contracts and see how many players you sign.
At least on the NFL contracts are not guaranteed. They shouldn’t be. Pay for performance.
That’s completely apples to oranges. You can’t even compare the two honestly. If you want to control them for so long (especially through most of their prime years), pay players absolutely nothing comparative to their market value then you’re going to have to make some trade offs. And even then it’s so one sided it’s not even funny. Every owner is willing to take that system, because they’re already squeezing the market. It’s a joke to think FA contracts shouldn’t be guaranteed, especially with the insurance money involved.
And as such, the NFL has worse problems like holdouts, injured players that still have an extra year or two on their contracts getting released, and even good, healthy veterans near-constantly getting released just so teams can better manage their cap space. Guaranteed contracts have issues of their own, but they’re still the better way to go.
The guarantees of life Death, Taxes, and at least 1 DL stint every year for Morrow.
To bad. Can’t be good if hurt. Lots of dollars to wat d on a guy that is hurt all times
Of course!
Well cubs at least the cards outbid you for Brett Cecil lol
They didn’t get outbid on Heyward….. that’s a bad contract.
The Cubs were outbid but they offered the buyout years plus Jason could see where the winning was going to be.
How is Fowler contract working for cards ?
Fowler is an average player. He’s bounced back well from last year. The Cards had to overpay to get him to go there.
Why?
Fowler had nowhere to go but up. He was abysmal last year. For an average player, I think 5 year/82 million is a bit much.
Fowler’s contract and Heywards contract are both overpays…you can argue which one is worse…heyward is having a good season as well is Fowler…if cubs fans want to argue numbers I’m just going to say that you need to look at Fowler’s numbers in the second half and also since he has been put in the lead off spot…the cubs once said sad Fowler goes so do they…well he is leading off for us very well right now…Heyward is also having a great season…baseball is funny
The dodgers abused him in 2017. The cubs should have thought about that combined with his bad durability history
Dumpster divin’ Theo!
You’re right!!! Dumpster Divin’ Theo
Yep, Wick and Ryan working out well for the Cubs.
Hey, not every team can land big name free agents like Yonder Alonzo and Ervin Santana! Kudos to the White Sox for opening up the wallets to bring in premium stars.
Relievers are so up and down he’ll sign a minor deal this winter and give a team 70 innings with a 2.00 era next season
Maybe cut that inning total in half
Morrow back to Dodgers on minor league contract for 2020
Twins fan yes if he plays for the Padres at Petco.
He should owe the cubs a minor league deal next year. If this freaking guy signs somewhere else and stays healthy next year, he won’t be allowed in the north side anymore for his safety
Morrow’s innings were once capped as a starter and was shut down with over a month left in that season. Following year he had arm trouble. Then two years afterward and the trend has continued. Too bad. Talented guy. One of many examples why the idea of shutting down pitchers does not work and has not worked.
So Brandon Morrow did what everybody except Theo Epstein knew he would do? Fascinating. Theo really should stick to rebuilds and keep it moving after that.
Ha he fooled white Sox to take cease and Jimenez . Quintana is a stud.
lol
High risk and high reward. This would of crushed the Sox being half their payroll but I think the cubs will survive.
Since leaving the Dodgers for the Cubs this contract is looking like a complete nightmare. Have to wonder if the Dodgers saw all this coming which is why they did not aggressively pursue him once he hit the free-agent market.
The money does not matter. The fact he didn’t contribute to the team matters. They gambler and it didn’t work out. They somehow still ended up with Kimbrel. Big markets can do this. The Rays, Marlins, etc can’t take risks like that.
I wonder if MLBTR’s still feels Castellanos can’t play in the National League?
Agreed. He’s given the Cubs a big lift. Too many stat nerds forgot to turn on the TV to actually watch players play the game.
With stories like these, is it any wonder that teams aren’t spending (relatively) much money on veteran relievers anymore?
While middle class free agents as a whole have been feeling the crunch in recent years, relievers are especially feeling it, and at least the top dogs among position players and starting pitchers are still getting paid handsomely. However, with how many of these relief contracts wind up burning their teams, it can be reasonably argued that the free-falling free agent prices for relief pitchers are fully deserved.
cant totally blame the Cubs for this. you have to take some risks to be successful, and sometimes they dont pay off. Houston risked overpaying quite a few players in 2017, and Boston risked not upgrading their pen in 2018. can’t be successful without taking risk or two.
You can blame Epstein for poor judgement, instinct and common sense. Heyward, Morrow, Chatwood and Darvish were all risky acquisitions that most GMs passed on given their respective contracts requirements and/or health factors.
Deep pockets = chances taken