The A's are adding another talented young arm to the rotation with the addition of right-hander Kade Morris.
The Athletics are officially calling up 23-year-old Kade Morris, as Chris Correa of the Turlock Journal first reported. Morris was acquired by the A's as the return for Paul Blackburn at the 2024 Trade Deadline.
He has been working his way through the A's system since, and following the injuries to both Aaron Civale and Luis Severino, it's now time for Morris to join Gage Jump as the latest top prospect in the A's rotation.
Through 11 starts with Triple-A Las Vegas, Morris is 5-3 with a 4.45 ERA, though he pitched better in May, holding a 4.30 ERA compared to a 5.26 ERA in April. In that span, he also racked up more innings and walked fewer batters. Those are two major traits that the A's could use right now: length and command.
While MLB Pipeline has him ranked No. 12 in the A's system, FanGraphs is much higher on him, ranking him No. 3 and saying, "For now, Morris looks more like the sort who plays a valuable, innings-eating no. 4/5 starter role during the regular season and then shifts into relief come playoff time." The A's will happily take an innings-eater.
He utilizes six pitches, though he relies most heavily upon his sinker, four-seamer and slider according to Baseball Savant. In his last outing on Wednesday against Tacoma, those three offerings accounted for 83% of his pitches, while his sweeper, changeup and curveball made up the other 17%.
The sinker sits 94-95 mph and is his main weapon against right-handers, while his four-seamer takes on the same velocity and the same role, except against left-handed hitters. He can fill up the zone with these two pitches, getting himself ahead in counts, while his other offerings create more swing-and-miss.
Between his vast array of pitches and the fact that he had an average exit velocity of 84.3 mph in his last start, that sounds like the type of pitching that has made Chris Bassitt successful for his 12-year career. Bassitt routinely used a diverse arsenal that resulted in weak contact in his time with the A's.
Morris is not on the A's 40-man roster yet, so an additional move will have to be made to add him to the roster. With the off-day on Monday in Chicago, the A's have options for where they would like to deploy him.
They could push him out there on Tuesday to keep him on regular rest (he last started on Wednesday), giving the rest of the rotation another day. They could also wait until Saturday to deploy him while keeping everyone else on regular rest. The third option would be somewhere in between.
Our guess is that it will be sometime in Chicago, otherwise they'd just be burning a roster spot for multiple days when they could have a fresh pitcher and bring him aboard later. The telling sign will be when the move is announced by the team. If that comes Monday or Tuesday, he should be starting shortly thereafter
