Erik Bedard’s shoulder situation is unchanged, so there is no telling when he’ll be back, Carlos Silva’s back injury has pushed his next start back.  That leaves a rotation of Felix Hernandez, Jarrod Washburn, who should be traded any day now, RA Dickey and occasionally the awful Miguel Batista.  Pair the numerous open rotation spots with the incredible rebound of JJ Putz and you have a situation that has the organization ready to pull the trigger on a move that they didn’t think they’d make until spring training.  That move, of course, is stretching out setup man/closer Brandon Morrow so that he could start in the major leagues… this year.

It sounds like that if Putz continues to dominate over the next week or two (or three), Morrow could be sent to AAA Tacoma for three starts, one of 3 innings, one of 5 and one of 6, before being recalled and plugged into the MLB rotation (assuming that he pitches well as a starter in AAA). 

Ryan Rowland-Smith, who was recently sent to AAA for similar reasons, Ryan Feierabend and Morrow should all get a few starts in the big leagues before this season is over as an audition for next season.

It also appears that Morrow will not be sent to play in Winter Ball this season, which is very good news.  If he went down there for a second straight year he would be racking up way too many innings on that right arm of his with little rest time in between.

Sources: Larry LaRue, Geoff Baker,