Brandon Morrow (SP-TOR)
Big things were expected for Brandon Morrow coming into the 2013 season. Toronto had just pulled off two blockbuster trades surrounding Morrow with the likes of Josh Johnson, Mark Buehrle and R.A. Dickey. After adding quality arms like this, Morrow was allowed to settle into the back end of the Blue Jays' rotation which would likely alleviate some of the pressure off of him. Instead, he suffered an entrapped radial nerve in his right forearm which shut him down for good last May.
Morrow has already thrown simulated games and bullpen sessions during the offseason, and the initial reports are all positive. But keep in mind that Morrow is the antithesis of durable. He has never pitched more than 179 innings in a season (2011) and did not even accumulate that many innings combined between 2012 and 2013. Despite that, he is a great candidate for a bounce-back season because 2014 represents the final guaranteed year of his current contract. In order to help convince the Blue Jays to exercise its $10M club option on him for 2015, Morrow will need to remind fantasy GM’s that he was once one of the most prolific strikeout pitchers in baseball as indicated by his career.9.4 K/9 ratio.