Morrow may benefit from delayed season
Cubs among teams with injury cases, depth issues that might benefit from extended downtime
MESA, Ariz. — At a time of eerie quiet and somber contemplation even in the sports world, a rare, potentially upbeat story walked from the parking lot toward the Cubs’ spring practice facility Thursday. Emphasis on “walked.” “There’s lots of benefits for me in this, actually,” Cubs reliever Brandon Morrow said.
Morrow and his teammates are still trying to grasp the larger, sobering reality of the COVID-19 pandemic that has shut down much of the country’s normal business operations, including a shutdown of professional baseball. Everyone remains in limbo, waiting for the next update on when they might play again.
For now, Morrow doesn’t hesitate when asked if he believes there will be a season this year.
“Yeah,” he said through a fence keeping a lone media straggler locked out of the complex (along with anyone else who doesn’t work for the team).
“It’s going to be shortened, obviously. I don’t know how many games they’ll try to fit in. Everything’s up in the air.”
But if there is one certainty in the already lengthy delay to the start of a potential 2020 season, it comes in the form of guys like Morrow.
The once-dominant closer who’s trying to bounce back from an elbow injury that cost him the 2019 season was last seen limping around the Cubs’ clubhouse because of a badly strained calf muscle the last time spring training operated on a normal schedule.
That setback came on the heels of a chest strain, the two issues conspiring to assure a far later start to his season than originally anticipated — even with his elbow giving him no trouble since rehabbing from a relatively minor surgery in September.
“The good news is my elbow feels good,” he deadpanned after the chest injury.
Within the strict confines of the non-real world of sports, if conditions become safe enough to start an abbreviated season at some point in June, or even July, teams with injury cases and depth issues could be among the biggest beneficiaries.
Say hello to the Cubs’ pitching staff.
“I’m good right now. I feel better,” said Morrow, who played catch Tuesday and again Thursday as he keeps his arm ready for bullpen work, assuming a new spring training starts up. “Obviously, the extra time is good for me to get healthy.
“And then there’s lots of rumors floating around about how the season will shake out. I think that benefits me, as well. Less games, more pressure to win. I don’t know what they’re going to do about salaries, but mine’s down anyway. So it’s easier to keep somebody like that around, I think. And if they expand rosters maybe, that would be another thing.”
The Cubs had little veteran bullpen depth coming into camp, and most of that had question marks attached to guys coming off down years in Craig Kimbrel, Morrow and Jeremy Jeffress.
Morrow was considered little more than a dice roll on a minorleague contract ($1 million for a full big-league season). He offered the Cubs first right of refusal on the flyer after pitching only half a season on his two-year, $21 million deal that ended last year.
If he’s ready and strong by the time a restart were to happen, managing his health during a shortened season won’t be nearly as challenging as navigating a full six months, especially without a cold April.
An aging Cubs rotation also might benefit from a shorter season compared to some younger, deeper staffs around the league.
But even the optimistic Morrow knows that’s something to dream about for now as he makes the short commute every other day from his place in Arizona and exercises social distancing and other safe practices, even in the sparsely populated Cubs complex.
“It’s weird that we have to [do this],” he said, gesturing to the oddity of conducting an interview with a beat writer through a fence at a 6-foot distance. “I don’t think people know what to think. It’s kind of day-to-day. It’s weird.”
The Blackhawks will be headed by the same three leaders — president John McDonough, general manager Stan Bowman and coach Jeremy Colliton — in 2020-21.
Hawks chairman Rocky Wirtz told The Athletic on Thursday that all three will “absolutely” return next season.
That news surely will upset a large portion of the fan base, which — angered by the inevitable third consecutive playoff miss that loomed before the NHL season shut down — had soured somewhat on Colliton and greatly on Bowman in recent months.
But one overlooked factor is that any GM change likely would also usher in an era of rebuilding.
At this point, Bowman has inseparably bonded himself with the retooling approach: making peripheral additions (Olli Maatta, Ryan Carpenter, etc.), utilizing the draft (Kirby Dach, Adam Boqvist, etc.) and favoring older and proven players over new and risky ones (Corey Crawford over Robin Lehner).
If Hawks ownership is happy with that structure, there’s no reason to part ways with Bowman, especially because that status-quo decision in itself aligns philosophically with Bowman’s aforementioned roster decisions.
If Hawks ownership had elected to make a change, the new GM almost certainly would have been enlisted to follow a different and more radical course than Bowman. Even if he wasn’t explicitly told to rebuild, he would have been foolish not to. That scenario likely would involve Crawford and Duncan Keith — among others — leaving the Hawks now, with Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Brandon Saad not too far behind.
And that rebuilding period might have proved more frustrating for fans, and more destructive to the
United Center’s sellout streak and the Hawks’ profits, than this ongoing yearning-for-past-glory stretch.
By keeping Bowman, Wirtz ensures the Hawks will stay the course, retain their aging (though still productive) core and seek to improve via short-term tinkering instead of tearing it down.
After all, that’s exactly how Bowman explained his philosophy when asked after the trade deadline last month.
“The one encouraging thing is just that Jonathan and Patrick, they’re having really good years even though they’re in their 30s,” he said in the middle of a longer response. “That’s helping us. We have some young players on the way; we’re trying to get some more. And when they start taking that step forward, hopefully our team can take a step forward.”
Retaining Colliton will likewise boost that philosophy, not only because Colliton was Bowman’s hand-picked choice two years ago, but also because Colliton has echoed much of the same rhetoric dozens of times this season.
That doesn’t mean the Hawks will remain the same next season, though.
Some jettisoning will be necessary this offseason (whenever that occurs) because of salary-cap concerns alone. Bowman is clearly committed to the youth movement in a way he wasn’t during the dynasty era, too.
He and Colliton spoke at length after the trade deadline about the importance of Dach and Boqvist’s development. Upcoming contracts for Dylan Strome and Dominik Kubalik presumably will flesh out the Hawks’ growing “young core,” which also includes players such as Alex DeBrincat and Connor Murphy. And rookies Nicolas Beaudin and Brandon Hagel impressed in their well-earned NHL debuts last week.
So, yes, the Hawks still will evolve over time.