Guardians trade Eli Morgan to Cubs for outfield prospect

In a transaction that seemingly came out of nowhere on Wednesday afternoon, the Cleveland Guardians and Chicago Cubs agreed to a deal that saw relief pitcher Eli Morgan headed to the north side. Meanwhile, coming back to Cleveland is A-Ball prospect Alfonsin Rosario, whose identity was somewhat of a mystery in the early reporting of this trade.

Rosario appeared in 109 games for the Myrtle Beach Pelicans last season, slashing .230/.344/.423 with 18 doubles and 16 home runs while driving in 73 runs and stealing 20 bases. There is one area of concern with his hitting profile, as his 143 strikeouts last year are far from encouraging. Granted, Rosario is only 20 and has plenty of time before reaching the majors if he reaches the majors, but this will be something to closely monitor as he progresses through Cleveland's minor league system.

The Guardians trading Morgan now may seem like a surprise, but upon further examination, it really isn't. Cleveland has an incredibly deep bullpen, and if they are going to deal from one area of the roster, it is their relief corps. When looking at where Morgan fell on Cleveland's bullpen hierarchy, he sits behind the likes of Emmanuel Clase, Cade Smith, and Hunter Gaddis, among others. When it is viewed from this perspective, everything starts to make a little more sense as to why Morgan is now a Cub.

Morgan is coming off a 2024 season that saw him post a career-best 1.93 ERA and second-best 0.976 WHIP in 42 innings of work across 32 appearances. As impressive as these two particular numbers are, Morgan's 7.3 strikeouts per nine innings were a career-low. Perhaps the Cubs see something they believe they can correct to maximize his strikeout rate while continuing to post low ERA and WHIP numbers, but if they are unable to for some reason, it could result in his numbers experiencing a correction of sorts, and that could lead to his time in Chicago not going as well as 2024 did in Cleveland.