Feb 22, 2016; Port St. Lucie, FL, USA; New York Mets relief pitcher Akeel Morris (64) throws in the outfield during spring training work out drills at Tradition Field. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 22, 2016; Port St. Lucie, FL, USA; New York Mets relief pitcher Akeel Morris (64) throws in the outfield during spring training work out drills at Tradition Field. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports /
The Atlanta Braves acquired Akeel Morris in their annual Kelly Johnson to the Mets trade. Could he impact the big league bullpen in 2017?
Player Profile
The Atlanta Braves acquired Morris in a June trade from the New York Mets.
Morris was initially drafted by the Mets in the 10th round of the 2010 draft out of high school in the Virgin Islands. Interestingly, one of the four players that attended the same school that have made the major leagues was actually drafted that same year as Jabari Blash was selected out of Miami Dade Community College in the 8th round.
The Mets sent Morris to their Gulf Coast League affiliate to begin his professional career. He made 8 appearances, throwing 24 2/3 innings with a 2.19 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, 15.89% walk rate, and 26.17% strikeout rate.
He spent his next season with Kingsport in the advanced rookie Appalachian League. He made 11 starts, throwing 51 1/3 innings, with a 3.86 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, 16.81% walk rate, and 26.99% strikeout rate.
The Mets had Morris repeat the level in 2012, beginning the move of Morris to the bullpen as Morris made 11 appearances, 6 of them starts. He tallied 38 1/3 innings with a 7.98 ERA, 1.57 WHIP, 12.29% walk rate, and 27.93% strikeout rate.
Morris moved into a swing man role for the Brooklyn team in the New York-Penn League in 2013. He made 14 appearances, 3 of them starts, throwing 45 innings, with a 1.00 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, 12.57% walk rate, and 32.79% strikeout rate.
He continued his dominance out of the bullpen with a full season in the South Atlantic League with New York’s low-A affiliate in Savannah in 2014. Morris made 41 appearances, saving 16 games, throwing 57 innings with a 0.63 ERA, 0.72 WHIP, 10.43% walk rate, and 42.18% strikeout rate.
Morris continued his progress one step at a time up the Mets system in 2015, opening with high-A St. Lucie in the Florida State League, and then earning a promotion to AA Binghamton in the Eastern League. He made a pit stop in between for a fill-in stop in the major leagues to make his major league debut to fill in for an injured and exhausted Mets bullpen.
On the 2015 season, Morris made 47 appearances in the minor leagues, saving 13 games, and throwing 61 1/3 innings. He posted a 2.05 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, 12.24% walk rate, and 34.18% strikeout rate.
His one major league appearance was forgettable, throwing 2/3 of an inning, allowing 5 runs on 3 hits and 3 walks.
Morris returned to AA Binghamton as the closer to open 2016, saving 6 games over 22 appearances and 25 1/3 innings before he was traded. The Braves assigned him to AA Mississippi in the Southern League, where he made 25 more appearances before heading to the Arizona Fall League.
He totaled 47 appearances in the regular season and 61 innings, with a 3.25 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, 14.18% walk rate, and 32.95% strikeout rate. He made four postseason appearances, throwing 4 1/3 innings where he was hit hard, giving up 7 runs on 6 hits and 4 walks, striking out 6. He then appeared in 9 games with the AFL, throwing 9 1/3 innings with a 2.89 ERA, 1.82 WHIP, and a 7/12 BB/K ratio.
Size – Morris is listed at 6’1″ and 195 pounds, and those numbers seem about right in both regards.
Delivery – Morris works from the stretch and finishes with a high 3/4 to near-overhand delivery.
Morris begins by bringing his hands from in front of his face down to his belt, and when his hands hit his belt, it kicks in the rest of his delivery as a sort of timing mechanism for him.
He has a low leg lift to just under belt high and then lunge forward with tremendous force with a huge leg kick in follow.
That big follow through is primarily due to his tremendous force generated from the peak of his delivery, and it causes a majority of his command/control issues.
Control (40) – Morris struggles with landing consistently in his delivery, and when his landing leg is off, he’ll his arm gets behind him in his delivery, and he attempts to use his arm to generate all his velocity and movement.
This has led to incredibly unpredictable and biting movement on his pitches over his career, but it also has meant that he currently sits with a 13.53% walk rate over his career.
While his hit rate has remained low thus far in the minor leagues, this is an incredible red flag over his future success.
Pitches
Fastball (60) – Morris runs his fastball in the 93-94 area, and he can touch 97 at top end when he reaches back. His high arm slot adds extra play to the ball in deception and movement.
With his rough landing, he can present both arm side and glove side movement on his pitch low in the zone. He can present “rise” on his pitch at top end velocity, all from a traditional four-seam fastball.
Change Up (60) – Morris’ fastball is tremendous in its own right, but his change is the pitch that will give him a major league career.
He gets similar unpredictable movement on the pitch due to his arm drag with his mechanics, but what makes the pitch so effective is that he truly gets more movement than his fastball with a similar arm movement on the pitch.
Slider (40) – Morris’ slider is strictly a “show me” pitch. He probably throws 2-3 per game, and they’re really best used as a “bury” pitch low in the zone, but he really has minimal control of the pitch.
His slider is nearly exclusively used against right-handed hitters, and his best location for effectiveness of the pitch is down and in on the RH batter, as the pitch does have some surprising cut action to its movement, giving it arm side run.
However, he rarely threw the ball for a strike, so if hitters simply sat on the pitch when recognized it, they’d be fine in most cases.
MLB Player Comp
While a significantly different build, Fernando Rodney is a very good comp in pitch type and control and what that can be.
Rodney is primarily a fastball/change guy, toughing upper 90s with his fastball and using his change as a very effective strikeout pitch.
Of course, that comparison could heavily frighten Braves fans as this is a guy who has combined the last two seasons for a -0.3 fWAR in spite of saving 41 games in 2015-2016 and throwing 128 innings of relief.
In his career, Rodney’s best run came from 2012-2014, which was when he was 35 and long gone from his original club, and that could very well be the case with Morris.
His control could be something that limits him to having a short streak where he is able to suppress hard contact and keep numbers low, but primarily, the walk rate will make him an extremely volatile reliever.
