Padres News: Brandon Morrow Suffers Setback, Shut Down

When the season started and Brandon Morrow won the fifth starter job in spring training, things were looking up for the rehabbed right-hander. When he started the season with 3 out of 5 starts going 7 innings and 2 going 6, allowing more than 2 runs in a start only once, things were looking excellent. Then things got worrisome.

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He hit the DL with shoulder inflammation it was seen as a setback but perhaps not surprising considering his injury history. Besides, Odrisamer Despaigne was ready to fill in as the fifth starter and is doing a very serviceable job in that role. Now however, he has hit a setback in his comeback Sunday leaving a rehab start in AA with soreness and sent to San Diego for an MRI. That MRI revealed no additional damage and now the best option is considered rest, as reported by Aimee Sachs on MLB.com.

"“Our doctors looked at him [Monday], and he had an MRI, and there really [aren’t] any significant changes from the previous MRI,” Black said before a game against the Braves. “So again, I think this is a situation with Brandon, we’ll probably have to take a little bit more time to let the shoulder calm down. If he was healthy, he was probably going to come back into our rotation Friday, but obviously, now that’s not going to happen.”"

It is a blow for the Padres rotation who consider to give up the long ball despite recent success on the mound. That said, Josh Johnson continues to make slow progress and while Brandon Maurer has become one of the most important and used members of the bullpen, he does come with starting experience if another injury befalls the rotation.

At this point, the Padres are hoping rest can heal a shoulder that hasn’t seen much actual game time use in awhile. He only started 6 games last year and 10 in 2013 for the Blue Jays. In 2011 he set his career innings high of 179 1/3 and the Padres are hoping he can be ready to go by around the All-Star Break.

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