Eli Morgan Elects Free Agency

Royals right-hander Eli Morgan cleared waivers following his recent DFA and has now elected free agency in lieu of accepting an outright assignment to Triple-A Omaha, per the transaction log at MiLB.com. That’s his right as a player with more than three years of service time (nearly five years, in Morgan’s case). He’s eligible to sign with any club.

The 30-year-old Morgan signed a minor league deal with Kansas City over the winter and was selected to the big league roster in late March. He’s been up and down with the Royals all season, pitching a combined 19 1/3 innings across five big league stints. In that time, he’s yielded 11 runs (5.12 ERA) on 24 hits and nine walks with 16 strikeouts. He’s averaged 91.2 mph on his four-seamer and also mixed in a mid-80s slider and upper-70s changeup.

From 2022-24, Morgan was a solid middle-relief arm in Cleveland. He logged 176 innings with the Guardians over those three years and notched a 3.27 ERA, 25.1% strikeout rate and 6.6% walk rate. Moran worked primarily medium- and low-leverage situations but was still a reliable source of quality innings in the Cleveland ‘pen.

Morgan battled shoulder and elbow injuries in 2024, however, limiting him to 32 appearances and 42 innings. The Guards flipped him to the Cubs in exchange for minor league outfielder Alfonsin Rosario in the 2024-25 offseason, and things have proceeded poorly for Morgan since. A shoulder impingement limited him to just 21 innings between the big leagues and the minors last year. He held his own in 13 2/3 Triple-A frames but was rocked for 11 runs in 7 1/3 major league innings.

Though he hasn’t fared all that well in sparse major league work this season, Morgan has a 1.40 ERA in 25 2/3 Triple-A innings. The 5’10” righty has punched out 32.4% of his opponents there, albeit against a 13.9% walk rate. His once-excellent command had taken a step back since those elbow and shoulder issues in 2024, and this year’s average four-seamer is down about a mile per hour from the 92.3 at which he sat in ’22-’24.

Bullpen depth is in heavy demand this time of year, and with the trade deadline behind us, rolls of the dice on this sort of rebound candidate are the primary ways for contending clubs to bolster their depth. Morgan isn’t likely to jump right onto someone’s major league roster, but he should still get some interest on a minor league deal with another club (or perhaps on a new deal with the Royals that has slightly more favorable minor league terms).