Cubs Acquire Righty Reliever Eli Morgan from Guardians, Designate Patrick Wisdom for Assignment (UPDATED)

[Matthew Trueblood]

Very much prioritizing the construction of a better 2025 bullpen, the Cubs moved to land an optionable righty without a bat-missing out pitch, but who had sparkling numbers last year anyway.

Image courtesy of © David Richard-Imagn Images

Entering the offseason with needs all over the roster and knowing they have several promising but not yet established arms taking up space on their projected bullpen depth chart, the Cubs struck on Wednesday to slightly ease their roster crunch and create more good choices for themselves in the relief corps. With the acquisition of Eli Morgan, they gain a righty with three remaining years of team control and one more season in which he can be optioned to the minor leagues, but one without a devastating offering that guarantees outs late in games.

Morgan, 29 next May, had a 1.93 ERA in 42 innings for Cleveland this year, but that didn't even make him one of the team's four most effective relievers. He has a four-seam fastball, a slider, and a changeup, all of which he can throw for strikes, but the heater only sits at 91-93 miles per hour, so he doesn't rack up strikeouts. Advanced metrics don't quite support the dazzling topline numbers he posted, which shouldn't come as much of a surprise. No one's true talent is a 1.93 ERA.

Morgan doesn't work as a high-leverage reliever very often, because he runs a below-average strikeout rate. However, because he commands his changeup well and therefore keeps lefties relatively quiet, he can be a flexible, valuable middle reliever. He's projected to make just $1 million next season, and crucially, he can still be optioned to the minor leagues for one more year. That sets him apart from non-tender candidates in the Cubs' incumbent pen, like Trey Wingenter, Caleb Kilian, and Keegan Thompson.

According to Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic, the Cubs will send an A-ball player to Cleveland to complete the deal. It won't be a high-octane move, but this makes the team's relief unit both stronger and more flexible. It also spells the end of Patrick Wisdom's time with the team. After four-plus years as a good organizational soldier with big power and a solid clubhouse influence, Wisdom was always going to be non-tendered Friday, if not released sooner. His removal from the roster makes room for Morgan, though, as the Cubs continue to have a full 40-man slate.

If the season began tomorrow, the bullpen depth chart would look something like this:

High-Leverage

• Porter Hodge
• Nate Pearson

Medium-Leverage Locks

• Tyson Miller
• Luke Little
• Eli Morgan

The Out of Options Crew

• Julian Merryweather
• Keegan Thompson
• Rob Zastryzny
• Caleb Kilian
• Trey Wingenter

Upside Arms Not Guaranteed Full-Time Roles

• Daniel Palencia
• Jack Neely
• Gavin Hollowell
• Ethan Roberts

As I've said before, I think they need to upgrade even more from here, which means non-tendering a couple of the players in the out-of-options bucket, and maybe Roberts, too. For now, though, Morgan is a clearly solid addition to the bridge from the team's rotation to the likes of Hodge, Pearson, and Miller.

So Long, Fonz
We now know whom the Cubs gave up to make this upgrade, and it's about the caliber of player we ought to have expected. Alfonsin Rosario, on whom they spent precisely the slot value after taking him in the sixth round in 2023. Rosario is a big, strong player from a South Carolina academy who flashed big tools in his first full pro season, but his strikeout rate was huge.

No player who strikes out over 30 percent of the time in Low A is going to jump out as a strong prospect. He's got oodles of obvious talent, but there's at least as good a chance he never plays a game in MLB as that he ends up a productive regular. He'll have to make some huge adjustments to get to the majors from here, and while it's possible the Cubs could have coaxed those out of him, sometimes, it makes more sense to turn that potential value in real and immediate value instead.

Rosario becomes the third member of the 2023 Draft class traded in deals with just that kind of exchange in mind. Josh Rivera (Nate Pearson) and Zyhir Hope (Michael Busch trade) went the same way. Whether that ends up being smart depends more on whether you're right about the player you acquire than on whether the player you trade away becomes an eventual star, so while Hope's stock has shot up and Rosario could find the key and turn all his tools into a dazzling profile, the more important questions are whether the team continues to get value from Busch; whether their tweaks with Pearson pay off with a full season of good health and effectiveness; and whether Morgan can repeat some of the results he posted in 2024. On balance, so far, they seem like good bets.

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