The Yankees and reliever Eli Morgan are in agreement on a minor league deal, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. The 30-year-old righty had been with the Royals organization but elected free agency after being designated for assignment earlier in the week. He’ll now head to the Yankees’ Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Triple-A affiliate and serve as some depth while New York gears up for the postseason. Morgan is represented by CAA.
Morgan got plenty of big league run with Kansas City this year, albeit in up-and-down fashion. He’s been recalled to the majors five different times and combined for 19 1/3 innings. Opponents dinged him for 11 runs (5.12 ERA) on 24 hits and nine walks with 16 strikeouts.
That performance follows a 2024-25 run that was impacted by elbow and shoulder injuries. Morgan was limited to 39 appearances and 49 1/3 innings across those two seasons, pitching to solid results with the Guardians and Cubs but spending two month-long stints on the 15-day IL and another four-month stay on the 60-day IL.
From 2022-24, Morgan was a solid middle-relief arm in Cleveland. He logged 176 innings with the Guardians over those three years and notched a 3.27 ERA, 25.1% strikeout rate and 6.6% walk rate. Morgan worked primarily medium- and low-leverage situations but was still a reliable source of quality innings in the Cleveland ‘pen.
Even with this year’s shaky major league results, Morgan has a 1.40 ERA in 25 2/3 Triple-A frames. The 5’10” righty has punched out 32.4% of his opponents there, albeit against a 13.9% walk rate. His once-excellent command had taken a step back since those elbow and shoulder issues surfaced, and this year’s 91.2 mph average four-seamer is down about a mile per hour from the 92.3 at which he sat in ’22-’24. He couples the pitch with a slider that’s averaged 85.4 mph and a changeup that has sat at 77 mph.
Yankees relievers rank second in the majors with a 3.00 ERA this season, and over the past month they’re fourth in MLB with a 2.69 earned run average. They don’t necessarily have a dire need for ‘pen help, but they have at least one spot somewhat up in the air. Bradley Hanner was only just promoted for his major league debut, and while 28-year-old Yerry de los Santos has been terrific in 14 big league innings (just one run allowed), he’s spent more of the season in Triple-A than in the majors and has only 99 2/3 big league innings under his belt overall.
Morgan joins Justin Topa as the second veteran reliever — and second former Royals/AL Central righty — to be scooped up by the Yankees in the past two weeks as they look to safeguard against any late injuries in the post-deadline push toward the playoffs.
