Brandon Morrow's Injury Situation Is Kind Of Concerning?

The Chicago Cubs have dealt with several big injuries this season, yet they have the best record in the National League with just a little more than a month left in the regular season. However, there is one injury situation that is kind of concerning? It's weird because ever since Brandon Morrow went down in July with a biceps injury and he had an MRI he said, "there was stuff in there," and that he would simply have to pitch through whatever he had. It's about to be September and Morrow still isn't close to returning. Cubs' pitching coach Jim Hickey said Morrow could be back until the middle of next month.

According to 670 The Score's Bruce Levine, Morrow has thrown two successful sessions from flat ground. The bad news is that Morrow hasn't thrown off a mound since Aug. 18. So, let's say Hickey's timeline is correct and Morrow returns in the middle of September, the closer won't be able to go out on a rehab assignment because the minor-league seasons will be over. So, after the bullpen sessions and maybe a few simulated outings to face live batters, Morrow will return to the mound and pitch for the first time since July 15 in an MLB game. That'll be two full months out of action for Morrow and then from that time he'll have about two weeks to work off any rust and hopefully show that the biceps injury is no longer bothering him. And because of that, Joe Maddon isn't just going to put Morrow right back in the closer's role when he comes back. Via Cubs.com.

Morrow is not expected back until September and he won't make a Minor League rehab appearance. The Minor League seasons end early next week. Maddon also said when Morrow does return, he will not automatically be inserted back into the closer's role. "No. That would be a bad assumption from me," Maddon said. "You have to build him back into that role and find out where he's at. Even if you want to use him in the ninth inning, I can't imaging a back-to-back nights kind of thing. You would think that by the end of [September], that you can do something like that, but I don't think you throw him into that."

As fans have waited for any sort of updates on Morrow during the last month, I've thought back to the 2016 season. If you think back to that season, Hector Rondon and Pedro Strop were big throughout most of the regular season out of the bullpen for Maddon. Obviously their roles changed after the Aroldis Chapman trade, but both Rondon and Strop were supposed to be counted on in the postseason. However, the duo landed on the DL in August, Rondon had a triceps injury, while Strop dealt with a knee issue. I'll focus on Rondon here because he was coming off an arm injury. Anyway, he missed three weeks from Aug. 14, to Sept. 6, of that year and when he returned he was pretty bad, giving up eight earned runs in his final 7.1 innings in the regular season. Remember, Rondon was the team's closer for 2.5 years, yet once the postseason started Maddon lost all confidence in him and Strop, who only had four relief outings after missing six weeks at the end of 2016. We all know that Maddon pitched Chapman through the ground during the 2016 playoff run, while Rondon and Strop only pitched in 11.2 innings combined in that postseason. So, what if Morrow doesn't look great in September and Maddon loses confidence in him? The Cubs don't have a Chapman in their bullpen that Maddon can ride in October like he did two years ago. That's really my biggest concern here. Just really need Morrow to return as healthy as possible and hopefully continue pitching how he did before this latest biceps injury. Or who knows, maybe Joe makes Jesse Chavez the next bullpen workhorse for the Cubs in the playoffs.