The Cubs and Guardians are in agreement on a trade sending right-hander Eli Morgan from Cleveland to Chicago, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. Chicago is designating infielder Patrick Wisdom for assignment to open space on the 40-man roster, ESPN’s Jesse Rogers adds. Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic reports that the Cubs are sending a prospect from A-ball back to the Guardians in the swap.
Morgan, 28, isn’t a household name but nonetheless represents a notable addition to the Chicago relief corps. The former eighth-round pick is fresh off a terrific season in Cleveland, having posted a 1.93 ERA in 42 frames out of the bullpen. Morgan was the beneficiary of a microscopic .222 average on balls in play and a bloated 85.2% strand rate, both of which serve as a portent for some ERA regression. However, he’s been a quality reliever for the past three seasons, working to a combined 3.27 ERA in 176 innings for the Guards.
Morgan did see his strikeout rate check in at a career-low 20.4% this past season, which is something of a red flag. The primary culprit has been a drop in swinging strikes against his four-seamer, though he hasn’t lost much in the way of velocity on the pitch. Morgan still racks up plenty of whiffs with his slider and changeup, and that pair of secondary offerings has helped him to keep both righties and lefties off balance in his four-year MLB career. Even with the dip in punchouts — Morgan fanned 28.1% of his opponents in 2022 and 25.1% in 2023 — he maintained strong command, issuing a walk to only 6.6% of opponents.
For the Cubs, Morgan will be a multi-year option in the ’pen — and an affordable one at that. He’s controlled for another three seasons and is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn just $1MM this coming season. His role in Chicago will determine the extent to which his price tag rises over the next few seasons — saves are compensated more in arbitration than middle relief work, for instance — but the Cubs will very likely pay fewer than $10MM for the three years of service they’re acquiring.
In addition to adding Morgan to the bullpen mix, the Cubs are bidding farewell to the slugging Wisdom, who’s tagged 84 home runs in a Cubs uniform over the past four seasons. The 33-year-old has been a consistent source of power and been a frequent thorn in the side of left-handed pitching, but Wisdom’s limited skill set has long been evident and proved particularly restrictive in 2024, when he hit just .171/.237/.392 in 174 plate appearances.
Strikeouts have been an issue for Wisdom throughout his career, but at least from 2021-23, he was productive enough against lefties and affordable enough that the Cubs were willing to overlook his flaws. He’s fanned in a whopping 36.5% of his trips to the plate dating back to 2021 and has reached base at only a .290 clip — all while playing sub-par defense at third base (with occasional work at first base and very fleeting looks at second and in the outfield corners). From 2021-23, Wisdom hit .231/.312/.517 against lefties and at least hit for power against righties, even though his .206 average and .291 OBP were eyesores. He didn’t produce against pitchers of either handedness in 2024.
Swartz had projected Wisdom for a $3MM salary this coming season — perhaps a reasonable price tag for a defensively limited corner bat who can torment lefties to the extent he did in ’21-’23. But the Cubs’ veteran-laden roster — which includes no-trade clauses for Ian Happ, Dansby Swanson and Seiya Suzuki — offers minimal paths to reshaping an offense that simply hasn’t gotten the job done in recent seasons. Subtracting Wisdom both frees up a bit of cash and subtracts a narrow skill set from the roster. That spot on the bench can now be allocated to a new acquisition, presumably one with a more well-rounded skill set.
The Cubs can trade Wisdom for the next week or place him on waivers within the next five days. Friday’s looming non-tender deadline also affords the Cubs the opportunity to simply non-tender the now-DFA’ed Wisdom, which would allow him to immediately become a free agent without needing to first pass through waivers (the only time of year teams are allowed to do so). They could use that as a mechanism to try to quickly re-sign Wisdom on a minor league deal, though he’d likely want to canvas the rest of the league to see if his power potential could land him a 40-man spot elsewhere.
Cleveland had the most dominant bullpen in MLB this past season, so the Guardians surely feel they’re dealing from a position of strength. Morgan’s salary is hardly prohibitive, but even in spite of his success, the rest of the Cleveland was so dominant that Morgan rarely found himself working in leverage spots. Emmanuel Clase, Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis and Tim Herrin all joined Morgan as relievers with 40-plus innings and sub-2.00 ERAs (sub-1.00, in Clase’s case).
The Cubs, meanwhile, dealt with bullpen issues throughout the 2024 season and ultimately wound up releasing last winter’s big relief acquisition, Hector Neris. Midseason pickup Jorge Lopez became a free agent at season’s end. As it stands, their late-inning mix is still full of relatively inexperienced arms, headlined by Porter Hodge, Tyson Miller, Keegan Thompson, Nate Pearson and Luke Little. Morgan will add some stability to that mix, but Chicago still seems likely to pursue further additions in the months ahead.
