The Cubs and Guardians agree to trade right-handed pitcher Eli Morgan from Cleveland to Chicago, ESPN's Jeff Passan reports. Chicago names the infielder Patrick Wisdom for use as open space on the 40-man roster: Jesse Rogers of ESPN adds. Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic Reports that with the trade the Cubs are sending a young player from A-ball back to the Guardians.
The 28-year-old Morgan isn't a household name, but still represents a notable addition to Chicago's relief corps. The former eighth-round pick is coming off a great season in Cleveland, posting a 1.93 ERA in 42 frames out of the bullpen. Morgan benefited from a microscopic .222 average on balls in play and a bloated 85.2% strand rate, both of which serve as portents of some ERA regression. However, he has been a top-notch reliever over the last three seasons, posting a combined ERA of 3.27 in 176 innings for the guards.
Morgan's strikeout rate was a career-low 20.4% last season, which is something of a red flag. The main reason for this was a decline in swing shots against his four-seater, although he hasn't lost much speed on the field. Morgan still turns heads with his slider and changeup, and this pair of secondary offerings have helped him keep both right-handed and left-handed hitters off-balance in his four-year MLB career. Despite the decline in punchouts – Morgan fanned 28.1% of his opponents in 2022 and 25.1% in 2023 – he maintained his strong lead and issued a walk to just 6.6% of opponents.
For the Cubs, Morgan will be a multi-year option in the stable – and an affordable one at that. He is controlled for another three seasons and is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn just $1 million next season. His role in Chicago will determine the extent to which his price rises over the next few seasons – saves are paid more in arbitration than center usage, for example – but the Cubs will most likely pay less than $10 million for the three years of service they receive acquire.
In addition to adding Morgan to the bullpen mix, the Cubs are also saying goodbye to the hard-hitting Wisdom, who hit 84 home runs in a Cubs uniform over the last four seasons. The 33-year-old was a consistent source of power and was often a thorn in the side of left-handed pitching, but Wisdom's limited skillset had long been evident and proved particularly restrictive in 2024, when he hit just .171/. .237/.392 in 174 plate appearances.
Strikeouts have been a problem for Wisdom throughout his career, but at least from 2021 to 2023 he was productive enough and affordable enough against lefties that the Cubs were willing to overlook his weaknesses. He has fanned out on a whopping 36.5% of his trips to the plate dating back to 2021 and reached base at just a .290 clip — all while playing subpar defense at third base ( with occasional work at first base and very fleeting glances). second and in the outer corners). From 2021 to 2023, Wisdom hit .231/.312/.517 against lefties and at least achieved power against righties, although his .206 average and .291 OBP were a thorn in his side. He has not performed against pitchers of either hand in 2024.
Swartz had projected Wisdom at a salary of $3 million next season — perhaps a fair price for a defensively limited corner 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 opportunity to reshape an offense that simply hasn't gotten the job done in recent seasons. Subtracting Wisdom both frees up some money and removes a limited number of skills from the roster. That spot on the bench can now be given to a new signing, presumably one with more extensive skills.
The Cubs can trade Wisdom for next week or place him on waivers within the next five days. Friday's upcoming non-tender deadline also gives the Cubs the option to simply non-tender the now-DFA-acquired Wisdom, which would allow him to immediately become a free agent without having to go through waivers first (the only time of year that teams have). allowed). They could use this as a mechanism to try to quickly re-sign Wisdom to a minor league deal, although he will likely want to recruit the rest of the league to see if his performance potential earns him a 40-man spot elsewhere could.
Cleveland had the most dominant bullpen in MLB last season, so the Guardians certainly feel like they're operating from a position of strength. Morgan's salary is hardly prohibitive, but despite his success, the rest of Cleveland was so dominant that Morgan rarely worked in leverage positions. Emmanuel Clase, Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis And Tim Mistress all joined Morgan as relievers with over 40 innings and under 2.00 ERAs (under 1.00 in Clase's case).
The Cubs, meanwhile, dealt with bullpen issues throughout the 2024 season and finally released last winter's big relief acquisition, Hector Neris. Pick up in mid-season Jorge Lopez became a free agent at the end of the season. As it stands, their late-inning mix is still full of relatively inexperienced arms, led by Porter Hodge, Tyson Miller, Keegan Thompson, Nate Pearson And Luke Little. Morgan will add some stability to the mix, but Chicago is likely to pursue additional acquisitions in the coming months.
