Hey, it’s a move! The Chicago Cubs today have acquired righty reliever Eli Morgan from the Cleveland Guardians, reportedly in exchange for an A-ball prospect. To open up a 40-man spot, Patrick Wisdom has been designated for assignment.
More on Morgan shortly, and on the return as it comes. It’ll be a prospect you miss, given the potential value here.
As for Wisdom, I wrote earlier today that his time with the Cubs was probably up, and now the Cubs will have seven days to trade, waive, or release him. But with the non-tender deadline coming on Friday, a resolution is going to come by then either way.
UPDATE: All right, some more on Morgan, who figures to be one of the “steady, solid, projected-to-be-good” relievers the Cubs expected to add this offseason. He comes via trade rather than free agency, but the philosophy is the same.
Morgan is 28, and has been pretty good for the Guardians three years running now after being converted from starter:
As you can see, he is more of a lower-velo contact-manager type than a true power arm, but we know the Cubs have had a lot of success with those guys. He does not walk guys, gets strikeouts at near a league average rate, and doesn’t give up hard contact. His 2.5% barrel rate this year is probably going to regress, and you would say the same about his .222 BABIP (and thus his sub-2 ERA). You’ll note that came this year in a smaller sample – Morgan missed time early in the year with an elbow issue.
Still, you would tentatively expect past performance to predict future performance at this stage of Eli Morgan’s career, so a mid-to-low-3s ERA, even assuming no improvement in a new organization, would be a reasonable projection. Very valuable.
Morgan comes with three years of team control, and is projected to make about $1 million in arbitration this year. He also has a minor league option year remaining, which frankly you hope you don’t have to use when you pay in trade to acquire a guy like this, but it’s additional flexibility just in case.
He works with an elite changeup (13th most valuable in baseball the last few years, says Michael). It looks funny up in the zone:
I think we’ll want to look a little more at the elbow injury in the coming days, because it’s hard to get a sense for these things while quickly breaking down the player. We’ll also want to know where the opportunities might be for Morgan to take another step (though it’s not like the Guardians are known for missing obvious opportunities). I wonder if new pitching specialist Tyler Zombro was pushing for the Cubs to make this move. I also wonder what former Guardians player development specialist Carter Hawkins (now Cubs GM) thinks about Morgan. No doubt knows him well.
As for the broader impact to the roster, the Cubs now have another stable (well, as stable as a pen arm can be) bullpen arm to rely on, and it won’t be much of a hit against payroll. So, if the Cubs are going cheap this offseason, this could theoretically cover a major need while still leaving a lot of flexibility. Here’s hoping the Cubs use it.
