Cubs: Bringing Brandon Morrow back would not be smart

Despite reports that Brandon Morrow could return to the Chicago Cubs in 2020, re-signing him would prevent the team from moving forward.

Pitching in all seven games of the 2017 World Series, Brandon Morrow looked like a good signing on paper – no pun intended – when he was inked to a two-year deal with the Chicago Cubs in the offseason. He collected 22 saves in the first half of the 2018 season but everything went south in San Diego when Morrow’s fastball was topping out at 94 mph – and normally sits at 99 mph. Something wasn’t right.

That something was a bone bruise in his throwing arm. Both he and Yu Darvish had similar fates in the 2018 season in that they rehabbed like crazy with the hope that they could help the Cubs achieve a long postseason run. But neither of them would pitch again that year. Darvish bounced nicely in 2019 but Morrow never threw a pitch in a game. It was an easy decision for the Cubs to decline his $12 million club option for 2020, albeit a $3 million buyout was given to Morrow just for simply going away.

But he may not be going away as the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that Morrow could potentially return to the team on a minor league deal next season.

“I don’t believe Brandon would sign with anyone else until the Cubs decide what they want to do,” Wolfe said. “The Cubs invested a lot of time into Brandon, and money, of course, and Brandon feels a certain sense of loyalty and obligation back to the Cubs to stay with them if they want him on a minor-league contract or something like that.”

I can certainly understand why his agent would say that. It’s his client and not many other teams are going to have interest in a guy who hasn’t pitched in over a year and a half. And while a minor league contract doesn’t seem like a big deal, least we forget how injury-prone Morrow was prior to joining the Cubs with injuries to nearly every upper body part including his back while putting a pair of pants on. That’s up there with Sammy Sosa injuring his back after sneezing or Kerry Wood injuring himself getting out of a bathtub.

Morrow, 35, was a bad signing for the Cubs, who were fooled by his appearances in the World Series. Allowing him to return to the team and potentially take a spot on the 40-man roster is not the road that the front office needs to travel down. With Pedro Strop, Brandon Kintzler, Steve Cishek, and Morrow all free-agents this offseason, the Cubs efforts would be better focused on finding the right guys who can regularly contribute next season.