From the start it was all about getting the young pitchers through the season healthy, by hook or by crook. So it should come as no surprise that Brandon Morrow will make just one more start for the Toronto Blue Jays this season.
He is a victim of his own success. One day after winning his 10th game of the season and giving the Blue Jays four starters with 10 wins - something to which only the Tampa Bay Rays, Minnesota Twins and San Diego Padres can lay claim - Morrow was called into a meeting Sunday before the Blue Jays' 10-4 loss to the Detroit Tigers and told by manager Cito Gaston, pitching coach Bruce Walton and general manager Alex Anthopoulos that his start Friday at Yankee Stadium will be it for 2010.
Morrow, who struck out nine batters over six innings in Saturday's 5-4 win over the Tigers, was acquired from the Seattle Mariners for Brandon League in a trade involving two hard throwers who had perplexed their respective teams. Morrow, a 26-year-old right-hander who was drafted fifth in the 2006 amateur draft, worked 124 2/3 innings last season, 69 2/3 at the major-league level, where he was used as both a starter and a reliever. This season, he has pitched 143 1/3 innings, striking out a team-high 174 batters and walking 63. The strikeout total is fourth best in the American League.
"We had a number in mind for him going into the year," Anthopoulos said. "We have a soft rule that you'd like to limit these guys to a 20-per-cent increase in innings. It's his first full season as a starter. This should be a good starting off point for him next season."
While Shaun Marcum is considered the Blue Jays' ace, and Ricky Romero has a new five-year contract that suggests he will some day lay claim to the title, Morrow's stuff is better than either of them. Harnessing it has been the issue, and it's telling that he is often compared to A.J. Burnett.
Although Anthopoulos wouldn't rule out the possibility of prospect Kyle Drabek joining the major-league team at the end of the Double-A Eastern League playoffs, the Blue Jays' player development people say he won't come up this year. Anthopoulos alluded Sunday to the fact that Drabek's innings are already being monitored at Double-A. Minor-leaguers Brad Mills and Scott Richmond are possibilities, as are spot starts by a reliever such as Brian Tallet, who was touched for three of the Tigers' runs Sunday in relief of Marc Rzepczynski on Dave Stieb Bobblehead Day, in front of 26,624 at the Rogers Centre.
Morrow struck out 17 on Aug. 8 in a one-hitter against the Tampa Bay Rays and then skipped a start. But Anthopoulos said he told Morrow that he was going to be monitored closely even before the all-star break, when it had become apparent that mechanical and attitude adjustments had Morrow on the right path.
"I understand what they're thinking, it's in the club's best interests and my best interests," said Morrow, who will stay with the team and concentrate on physical conditioning and developing a changeup grip but be restricted to throwing from flat ground.
Morrow said his arm felt fine, adding: "But that's the point of doing this."
Gaston praised Morrow effusively for his ability to make an adjustment to his arm angle and to eradicate a tendency to tip his pitches to opposing hitters.
"He's a very coachable kid," Gaston said. "You can talk to him about something he's doing wrong and he will correct it right away. He's a very intelligent kid. If you had 25 guys that coachable, he'd make a manager or coach's job easy."