Right-handed reliever Bryan Morris, who was designated for assignment by the Giants over the weekend, has cleared waivers and will elect free agency rather than accept an outright assignment to Triple-A, reports FanRag’s Robert Murray (Twitter link).
The 30-year-old Morris was a quality bullpen piece for the Marlins from 2014-15 but suffered a back injury that ultimately required surgery and ended his season early in the 2016 campaign. Miami cut him loose this offseason, at which point he inked a minor league pact with San Francisco. Morris opened the year in the Giants’ minor league ranks but surfaced in the Majors early in the month of May.
In 21 innings with San Francisco this year, Morris has been tattooed for a 6.43 ERA. The vast majority of the damage against him has been confined to a handful of unsightly outings, though, including a five-run shellacking at the hands of the Braves in his final appearance with the Giants. Morris was a ground-ball machine with the Pirates and Marlins from 2013-15, racking up grounders at a nearly 59 percent clip. This year, though, that rate is down to 47.4 percent. Morris has also seen his K/9 rate dip to 6.4 (though he’s never been a big strikeout pitcher) while his BB/9 rate is up to 4.7.
Despite his poor numbers in 2017 and recent surgical procedure, Morris’ track record should garner some degree of interest on the open market, even if it’s only on another minor league deal. He did, after all, pitch to a 2.80 ERA with enormous ground-ball tendencies over the life of 215 big league innings from 2012-16.
like every other free agent RP … Nats take a cheap look here?
Thank you for using tattooed. I love that baseball term.
Morris joins the ranks of Mat Latos, Adam Wilk, Dillon Gee, Edwin Jackson, etc in the revolving door of ineffective pitchers readily available when you need to have a body on the mound regardless of performance.
Except gee got himself a contract
Replace gee with young
I really hope someone takes a chance on this guy. He has put up average to great numbers every year except this season. I was surprised when he didn’t get a major league contract over the offseason. Instead of a team going out to get a bullpen arm this July, they should really take a chance on Morris. He could be he same player without giving up a prospect.
He a good guy to take a flyer on. He’s only ever had one bad season and was having a pretty good one last year until he got injured. Even this year his stats show that he’s been pretty unlucky
Good pitcher.
Would have been nice to see him stay in san francisco. Guy can really work the batters.
Back to Bucs? Their dumpster fire of a bullpen (except for Rivera) couldn’t really get any worse.
I believe if we team up his arm with Cody Bellingers bat we have a dynasty
Just please stop. Seriously.
The Reds should sign him. Their bullpen is almost dead from fatigue. And this guy is a ground ball machine, if he returns to form.