Baker: Mariners’ Morrow will be a reliever

To Morrow! To Morrow! Clear away the cobwebs.

But then, as it often happens, a new life happened while Morrow was making other plans. And Sunday, Morrow announced that the bullpen really is where he wants the remainder of his baseball life to unfold.

“Once they traded J.J. [Putz], I thought, I kept going back and forth and back and forth,” he said, adding that he told the Mariners of his decision roughly a week ago. “I just felt like a big relief when I went back to the bullpen, because I feel that’s like my home now. I’ve been there two years and I don’t know if I could go back [to starting].”

And he has no plans to try. Morrow met with Mariners coaches and front-office members early Sunday; they are on-board with the decision and released relief pitcher Tyler Walker a few hours later.

Walker had been one of several candidates vying for the closer’s job. Morrow won’t automatically be handed the role — whether he even starts the year in the majors will depend on how he looks in his final few bullpen outings here — but he’s clearly going to be closing in the not-too-distant future.