(670 The Score) Cubs closer Brandon Morrow's season is over.
The Cubs have shut Morrow down for the remainder of the year as he attempted to work back from a bone bruise in his biceps, president of baseball operations Theo Epstein told reporters in Arizona ahead of a contest against the Diamondbacks on Tuesday evening.
While not surprising in the big picture given Morrow's long injury history, the news did go against the grain of what Morrow himself had recently proclaimed. After a short bullpen session Saturday, Morrow declared he was ready to return.
Perhaps one of his lines was a sign of what was to come though, as he mentioned that the reaction "has regressed back to a discomfort I am used to." In these following days, Morrow experienced greater pain in his biceps when he did something as mundane as lift a cup of coffee.
"I probably got a little overconfident with it, obviously, the way I felt that day," Morrow told reporters Tuesday. "It felt OK throughout the night. The next morning was kind of when I knew things were going the wrong way. I just woke up feeling the same I was a couple months ago."
Morrow was terrific in the teams first four months of the season, posting a 1.47 ERA and converting 22 of 24 save opportunities before being sidelined in mid-July. It was actually a June 2 game that Epstein pinpointed as a setback for Morrow, who was supposed to be unavailable that day but appeared in the bottom of the 14th after the Cubs had taken a 7-1 lead against the Mets with a six-run outburst in the top half. The team's victory marked Morrow's third straight day of work and fourth appearance in five days then.
The Cubs don't expect the 34-year-old Morrow to need surgery and believe he'll be ready for the start of spring training with an offseason of rest and rehab. Morrow is under contract through 2019, with a $12-million team option for 2020 as well.
Already strung thin, the Cubs bullpen will face a great challenge without Morrow come playoff time. Pedro Strop had been the primary closer in his absence, but he strained a hamstring running out a groundball while batting in the 10th inning of a win. He's been ruled out for the rest of the regular season, and his availability for the start of the playoffs remains in doubt as well. Additionally, C.J. Edwards has struggled with his command in recent weeks, leading manager Joe Maddon to make difficult matchup-based decisions on a daily basis.
