The MLB lockout rolls on into 2022, providing baseball writers like me with a wealth of content to help endear myself to a new audience. Sarcasm aside, there truly is a lot to talk about with the Cleveland Guardians; from a new minority owner and the hope of spending/payroll increasing, the hope of a money injection keeping Jose Ramirez and Shane Bieber on the shores of Lake Erie long term, and the flood of prospects likely to take the field for Cleveland in 2022. For now, and possibly the next several weeks, let’s focus on the prospects that could crack the big league club next season, and maybe even a few of the further down players with potential.
The Guardians deployed quite a large crop of prospects in 2021, largely due to injuries and a dash of incompetence. Players like JC Mejia, Ernie Clement, Owen Miller, and Eli Morgan to name a few. Those debuts were hard to stomach in many instances. Morgan was modern-day Jekyll and Hyde as a starter, Miller’s hot hitting never quite translated to the majors, and Mejia was eventually traded by the club before the lockout began to avoid keeping him on the 40-Man. However, the crop of prospects that could and should debut for Cleveland in 2022 is MUCH stronger than last year.
The most frustrating part of 2021, from a prospect development standpoint at least, was the Cuyahoga Pitching Factory LLC appeared to have issued a recall for faulty arms last season. Now, realistically the Guardians didn’t plan on their top three starters spending significant stints on the IL in 2021, and in fairness that did cause the likes of Morgan and Mejia to be called up too early, but with the wealth of pitching in the organization, who benefitted from not being forced into action last season?
Cody Morris is one such pitcher, a right-hander taken by the Guardians in the 7th round of the 2018 draft. Morris, 25, made his professional debut in 2019 splitting time between Low-A and High-A. Like much of baseball’s prospects, he spent the 2020 pandemic season working out at Cleveland’s alternate site while pitching mostly in Double-A and Triple-A in 2021. The sample size for Morris is small, but it’s certainly impressive.
Morris appeared in 15 games in the minors in 2021, starting 14 of them en route to a 2-2 record. In those 15 games, Morris spanned 61 innings and maintained a 1.62 ERA while striking out 38.7% of batters who opposed him, walking 8.3% of batters and registering a WHIP of 1.00. Most impressively for Morris was his 1.89 FIP across all three levels he pitched in 2021, controlling the things he can control exceptionally well, but it’s hard to tell how repeatable he can be with just 150 professional innings under his belt.
Aside from looking at his stats, unless you’ve seen Morris live in action there isn’t really too much out there about him. A couple of different scouting reports agree that his best tools are his mid 90s fastball that can touch 97 and a high 70s 12-6 curve. He also mixes in a seemingly effective changeup. His biggest knock appears to be his control, with Prospects Live pointing out an inconsistent release point causing his fastball to catch too much of the zone at times.
So what lies ahead for Cody Morris? Based almost purely on the fact that Cleveland added him to the 40-Man in November, Morris appears to be headed to Spring Training as the most likely candidate for the club’s swingman in 2022. Nothing is guaranteed, we still need to see him face major league hitters in Arizona before he can even make the roster, but it would appear to be the case with Cal Quantrill and Triston McKenzie securing their spots in the rotation down the stretch in 2021.
If Morris cracks the roster, then what the club would like to see from him in 2022 is two-fold. First, work with Carl Willis and the rest of the staff to address the inconsistent release point. Pitch tunneling isn’t exactly a sabermetric, but it sure is pretty to watch in gif form and can genuinely be confusing from the perspective of the batter. With just a three-pitch mix and an inconsistent release point, it could be difficult for Morris to effectively sequence his pitches and turn a lineup over a second or third time.
Second, even while in the bullpen, keep the long toss game going and continue to build stamina. Cleveland had way too many starts of five innings or fewer last season, putting excess strain on the bullpen more often than not. It would be an unrealistic expectation for a 25-year-old rookie to consistently go get you seven on short notice, but five innings should be achievable consistently given Morris’ stuff if McKenzie needs to skip a turn in the rotation.
Ideally, the team stays healthy and Morris can hone his craft in the bullpen while making a handful of starts next season. There has been some buzz around Morris since catapulting to Triple-A after a season, but it’s arguable there should be more. The Cuyahoga Pitching Factory LLC has definitely done more with less than what Morris brings to the table, and at the very least Cleveland should have a young, team-controlled bullpen hand for the next several seasons.