The Cubs and Guardians have agreed to a right-hander trade Eli Morgan from Cleveland to Chicago, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports. Chicago designates infielder Patrick Wisdom for assignment to free up space on the 40-man roster, ESPN’s Jesse Rogers adds. Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic reports that the Cubs are returning an A-ball prospect to the Guardians in the trade.

Morgan, 28, isn’t a household name but nonetheless represents a notable addition to Chicago’s relief corps. The former eighth-round pick is fresh off a stellar season in Cleveland, posting a 1.93 ERA in 42 frames out of the bullpen. Morgan was the beneficiary of a microscopic .222 average on balls in play and a blown beach percentage of 85.2%, both of which serve as a sign for some ERA regression. However, he has been a quality reliever over the past three seasons, working to a combined ERA of 3.27 in 176 innings pitched for the Guards.

Morgan saw his strikeout rate hit a career-low 20.4% this past season, which is something of a red flag. The main culprit is a drop in the number of swinging strikes against his four-legged friend, although he has not lost much speed on the field. Morgan still racks up plenty of whiffs with his slider and changeup, and those pair of secondary offerings have helped him keep both righties and lefties off balance in his four-year MLB career. Even with the dip in punchouts — Morgan fanned 28.1% of opponents in 2022 and 25.1% in 2023 — he maintained strong command and walked just 6.6% of opponents.

For the Cubs, Morgan will be a multi-year option in the pen – and an affordable option at that. He has three more seasons left in the job and according to MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz, he will make just $1 million next season. His role in Chicago will determine how much his price tag will rise in coming seasons — savings are more compensated in arbitration than center relief work, for example — but the Cubs will most likely pay less than $10 million for the three years he plays. service they purchase.

In addition to adding Morgan to the bullpen mix, the Cubs are parting ways with the lanky Wisdom, who has belted 84 home runs in a Cubs uniform over the past four seasons. The 33-year-old has been a consistent source of power and often a thorn in the side of left-handed pitching, but Wisdom’s limited skill set has long been apparent and proved particularly limiting in 2024, when he hit just .171/1. .237/.392 in 174 at bats.

Strikeouts have been a problem for Wisdom throughout his career, but at least from 2021 through 2023 he was productive enough against lefties and affordable enough that the Cubs were willing to overlook his shortcomings. He has sparked a whopping 36.5% of his trips to the plate dating back to 2021 and has reached base at just a .290 clip – all while playing subpar defense at third base (with the occasional work at first base and very cursory looks at second and in the outfield corners). From 2021 to 2023, Wisdom hit .231/.312/.517 against lefties and at least for power against righties, even if his .206 average and .291 OBP were a thorn in his side. In 2024, he didn’t produce against pitchers with either hand.

Swartz had Wisdom projected for a $3 million salary next season — perhaps a fair price tag for a defensively limited cornerback who can torment lefties the way he did in ’21-’23. But the Cubs’ veteran-laden roster — which has no trade clauses for Ian Happ, Dansby Swanson And Seiya Suzuki – offers minimal opportunity to reshape an offense that simply hasn’t succeeded in recent seasons. Subtracting Wisdom both frees up some money and subtracts a limited number of skills from the roster. That spot on the bench could now be allocated to a new signing, presumably one with a more well-rounded skill set.

The Cubs could trade Wisdom next week or put him on waivers within the next five days. Friday’s looming non-tender deadline also gives the Cubs the opportunity to simply not trade out the now DFA-approved Wisdom, which would allow him to immediately become a free agent without having to go through waivers first (the only time of the year teams are allowed to do this). They could use that as a mechanism to try to quickly re-sign Wisdom to a minor league deal, although he would likely want to recruit the rest of the league to see if his power potential could land him a 40-man spot elsewhere .

Cleveland had the most dominant bullpen in the MLB last season, so the Guardians certainly feel like they are trading from a position of strength. Morgan’s salary is by no means prohibitive, but despite his success, the rest of Cleveland was so dominant that Morgan rarely worked at a highly leveraged position. Emmanuel Clase, Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis And Tim Herrin all joined Morgan as relievers with 40+ innings and ERAs under 2.00 (under 1.00, in Clase’s case).

The Cubs, meanwhile, dealt with bullpen issues throughout the 2024 season and ultimately wound up releasing last winter’s big relief signing, Hector Neris. Pick up in mid season Jorge Lopez became a free agent at the end of the season. As it stands, their late-innings mix is ​​still full of relatively inexperienced weapons, headlined by Porter Hodge, Tyson Miller, Keegan Thompson, Nate Pearson And Lucas Klein. Morgan will add some stability to that mix, but Chicago still appears to be pursuing further additions in the coming months.