The Angels announced on Tuesday that they’ve acquired righty Akeel Morris from the Braves in exchange for a player to be named later or cash. Atlanta designated Morris for assignment over the weekend. In order to clear a spot for Morris on the 40-man roster, the Angels designated right-hander Troy Scribner for assignment.
[Related: Updated Los Angeles Angels depth chart]
Initially a 10th-round pick of the Mets back in the 2010 draft, the now-25-year-old Morris overpowered hitters in the lower levels of the minors, posting gaudy strikeout totals that helped to overshadow some glaring control issues. He quickly shot up the Mets’ prospect rankings, ranking 19th and 22nd among Mets farmhands in the 2014-15 and 2015-16 offseasons, respectively. The Braves picked him up in the 2016 trade that sent Kelly Johnson to New York in what looked to be a surprisingly solid return for Johnson at the time.
Morris has continued to post solid numbers in the upper levels of the minors, as evidenced by last season’s 3.09 ERA, 10.2 K/9, 4.4 BB/9 and 32 percent ground-ball rate in 46 innings of Triple-A ball. The St. Thomas native also tossed 7 1/3 innings with the Braves’ big league club in 2017, allowing just a run on six hits and four walks with nine punchouts while averaging 93.1 mph on his heater. Morris is in his final option year, so the Angels will be able to shuffle him back and forth between Triple-A Salt Lake and Anaheim as they see fit this season.
As for Scribner, the 26-year-old made his own big league debut last season, pitching to a 4.18 ERA with an 18-to-10 K/BB ratio in 23 innings for the Halos. Unlike Morris, Scribner has worked primarily as a starter in the minors, spending the bulk of the 2017 season in Salt Lake, where he notched a 4.35 ERA with 9.0 K/9 against 3.3 BB/9 with a 36.6 percent grounder rate in 103 1/3 innings of work. The former Astros farmhand, whom the Angels acquired in March 2017 in exchange for cash, still has multiple minor league options remaining, which should enhance his appeal to clubs that are thin on rotation depth in the upper minors.
Hope we get Simba back! 😉
Eppler should be arrested for robbery on that Simmons deal.
Still a lot of hope for Newcomb. Things aren’t looking good from the Braves perspective right now though. The other pieces, Chris Ellis-became-Jaime Garcia-became-Huascar Ynoa, and Erick Aybar-became-Kade Scivicque don’t offer much as it stands though Ynoa is still 19.
Nuff said. Eppler killed this one.
Regardless of what Newcomb becomes the Braves lost that deal. Unless of course he becomes Clayton Kershaw….
Absolute ceiling is Lester. But doubt that’ll happen with his control. Want to be an optimist, but it’s hard
Simmons was a huge favorite of mine…but that trade wasn’t horrible at the time. He didn’t look like he was going to live up to the value of his contract. He had posted 0.5 and 1.2 oWARs in his last two years in Atlanta. No one wants to pay $11m for that.
That trade was terrible at the time and hasn’t aged well. He’s probably the best defensive player in baseball at a premium position. Any positive oWAR on top of that is a bonus. Seemed like he and Freeman were going to be the two pieces to build around.
Also, I know you didn’t just say this but lots of Braves fans love to point to Swanson as why the trade made sense but he wasn’t with the organization at the time.
No, not at all. Swanson was a reaction to this.
Look, if you didn’t watch Simmons day in and day out, I don’t think you can appreciate the trajectory his offense was on. ALL of the local writers who did were lamenting his extension, questioning its value, as when he signed it, the expectation was a floor of 15-20 Home Runs and a ceiling of 20-30. That didn’t come to fruition, and we were left with a player who struck out a lot, generated negative contact results based on his more talent then approach plate discipline, and he was an aggressive base runner with poor technique and a history of getting hurt, therefore an injury away from having an overwhelmingly negative value on the back end of that deal.
Also, a +2 dWAR player that cant hit is pretty much 15% of career AAA players. Teams may be over paying for defense, but without offense to back it, Defensive value can be had quite cheaply.
He’s also frankly smelling like roses playing in a lineup with Justin Upton, Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, etc. he’s reaping a lot of benefits he didn’t get here.
Scribner most certainly will be claimed, if not acquired via trade.. He’s a potentially valuable depth option and serviceable back-end starter.
Lol. Yeah. They thought so highly of him that they acquired Akeel freaking Morris
Arizona claimed Scribner.
Got shelled in his debut in Toronto as a member of the Mets
Gosh I don’t understand this move by the braves. I must be missing something. He pitches really well. We sorta need bullpen pieces. Why would we trade a solid bullpen piece. He was a former top 30 prospect, so the potential is there. I just don’t get this at all.
I’m not understanding a lot of AA’s moves lately. There isn’t a clear motive with a lot of his moves. Trading for cash so we can spend something outrageous next season? How much cash could we be getting in this deal? Not a ton … was he really the best option for a Dfa or release on the entire roster. I don’t think so. Very questionable
Attitude or behavior fit? maybe not coachable? Made demands to be traded? He seemed to have some arm talent. Must be more to the story.
“Initially a 10th-round pick of the Mets back in the 10th round of the 2010 draft”
Wait, what round was he drafted in?
10^10
Hahahahha! 🙂