Guardians Add An Exciting Power Arm And A Utility Bat As Rosters Expand For September
The Cleveland Guardians have added 25-year-old RHP Cody Morris and 26-year-old utility man Ernie Clement as the active roster expands to 28 for the start of September.
Morris the teams seventh-round pick in 2018 out of South Carolina, will be getting his first taste of the big leagues and could potentially be another weapon for the Guardians out of the bullpen.
Morris has been working his way back from a "lat" injury he suffered in spring training and held him out of action this season until mid-July. A starter for his career he had lately come out of the bullpen at Triple-A Columbus in preparation for what is sure to be his role in Cleveland.
In nine games at Columbus this season Morris has looked impressive racking up 30 strikeouts in just 15.1 innings pitched while posting a 2.35 ERA. He has only allowed five hits with batters hitting a paltry .096 against him.
Morris has an electric arm when healthy is four-seam fastball can sit between 92-95 and touches 98 mph. His fastball has good movement with high spin rates. He also possesses an above average curve ball with good downward break. Morris third pitch is a sinking changeup that he throws against left-handed batters to keep them in check.
He has solid command of all three of his pitches to go along with average to above average control.
It will be interesting to see how Tito uses him. I expect he will be broken in slowly in low leverage situations in early innings of the game. He is capable of giving them multiple innings as a long man as well. If Morris finds success and is able to duplicate what he has accomplished the last two seasons at Triple-A he could potentially carve out a more prominent role in the pen heading into the final weeks of the season.
The other addition for the Guardians is a familiar face in that of utility man Ernie Clement.
Clement started the season with the team playing in 59 games but was optioned to Triple-A Columbus on August 3rd after posting a .203 average and a measly .492 OPS over 143 at bats.
While at Columbus Clement played in 21 games hitting just .238 over 80 at bats but he did surprisingly show some pop hitting four home runs while driving in 17 runs.
The move to add Clement back to the active roster is a little surprising and perplexing with the team already rostering both Tyler Freeman and Owen Miller. It's unknown what Clement's current role may be, but it doesn't seem to figure he will carve out any significant playing time.
For Fans who wanted to see a flashier move with the addition of a Gabriel Arias, Bo Naylor, Nolan Jones or even Will Brennan they will just have to continue to wait as the organization seems to have gone with the experience of Clement for the moment.
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