Why Yankees' Eli Morgan Signing Is an Uninspiring Move for Stretch Run

If this were 2024 and the New York Yankees had acquired Eli Morgan, the move would have felt a little more inspiring. That year, he was a key piece in the Cleveland Guardians bullpen as a crafty righty who relied on location and drawing soft contact to generate outs.

Unfortunately, the version of him who had a 1.93 ERA no longer exists. Since then, he has dealt with an elbow injury that sidelined him for most of 2025 and was generally ineffective this year.

Cleveland Guardians pitcher Eli Morgan (49) throws during the ninth inning against the New York Yankees in game 3 of the American League Championship Series at Progressive Field. | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

One thing about Morgan is that, given the small sample size he has had with the Kansas City Royals this year, he has been inconsistent. He'll go one or two games without giving up a run, and then he'll have a bad one, which is followed by him going another game or two posting zeroes in an outing. This type of production is why he has been shuttled between the big leagues and Triple-A and was inevitably designated for assignment.

It's pretty clear why the Yankees made the Morgan move, though. They want to see if there's anything left in the tank for him, and it's a last-ditch effort to find a quality arm to fill out a bullpen headed down the stretch.

A desperate bid to fix the bullpen

The Yankees find themselves only three games out of first place, playing a lot of tight games, and the big hope is that he could eat up some innings and potentially put up some zeroes himself. The big fear in Yankee land is that they're big guns are being overworked, and it's fair to feel that way.

There was a time to find quality arms pretty recently, and that was the August 4th trade deadline. Instead, the Yankees acquired two bats, Luis Garcia Jr. and Heliot Ramos, and left it at that.

New York Yankees left fiedler Heliot Ramos (34) hits a double against the Toronto Blue Jays during the first inning at Rogers Centre. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The bullpen, which needed some fresh faces in it as far back as last winter, went neglected. Banking on Morgan to find something from two years ago is like expecting a payout from buying a $2 lottery scratch-off.

The only real way to fix this bullpen right now is to hope that not only does Max Fried come back sooner rather than later, but the rotation stays healthy as well. This way, they can send Will Warren or Ryan Weathers into the pen, and they can hope that either one can be effective in a new role after being a starter all year.

What the Yankees have done in the bullpen this year was strange. You give them credit for the Paul Blackburns and Brent Headricks of the world, but it does feel like they have three quality relievers and are living on a hope and a prayer with guys like Tim Hill and Fernando Cruz not imploding every time they're out there. They needed to do more, and are banking on their creativity paying off.

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