Is Andrew Morris the Minnesota Twins' Next Relief Success Story?

[Cody Pirkl]

Image courtesy of © Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Perhaps in a different timeline, Andrew Morris is in the back end of the Twins’ rotation, filling in for their many starting pitching injuries. Instead, he was one of the first starting pitching prospects to pivot to a bullpen role, where the team has been desperate for help all season. As the sample size grows, he looks like he can be the next great internal reliever the Twins develop.

Morris has posted an unimpressive ERA so far, just below 5.00. Taking a look under the hood, however, there's much more to like. From xERA to FIP to xFIP, he looks like a pitcher with a low-2s to mid-3s ERA in his first taste of bullpen action. An unfortunately high batting average on balls in play, as well as a below-average stranded runner rate, have held him back, but he’s still posted a solid performance with even more to like the deeper you dig.

 

 

Morris still uses what would be considered a starting pitcher’s repertoire, with five pitches he throws at least 10% of the time. Each of these pitches has drawn a whiff rate of at least 20%, giving him the ability to turn to them in all counts. Only his sinker has been truly punished by opposing hitters, and we’ve already seen him decrease the usage from almost 15% in April to under 9% so far in June.

 

The four-seamer remains his most used pitch, and we’ve seen him dial it up to 100 mph when he’s needed it. The most interesting development in his repertoire is the increase in cutter usage. So far in June, it’s Morris’s second-most-used pitch and has drawn a 30% whiff rate. When hitters do connect, an average launch angle of -12 degrees allowed has resulted in plenty of ground balls. If this pitch can continue getting the whiffs and weak contact, Morris has a legitimate plus offering to build the rest of his repertoire around.

 

Once considered a low-ceiling starting pitching prospect, Morris is already flashing signs of being a true impact, late-inning reliever. Forming his pitch mix around his new role, drawing more whiffs than ever, and showing increased velocity, this is exactly what you hope for when you drop a starting pitcher in the bullpen.

 

Time will tell whether Morris can become the next Taylor Rogers, Griffin Jax, Louis Varland, etc., but what he’s already shown has been plenty for this Twins team that quite simply had nothing in the way of upside relievers headed into 2026. There’s still a chance that the Twins chose to move him back to the rotation at some point, but as things currently stand, Morris can spend the rest of this season positioning himself as one of the Twins’ high-leverage relievers in 2027.

 

It’s been a strong debut for Andrew Morris. He has an opportunity to position himself atop the Twins’ 2027 bullpen with more development down the stretch in 2026. Do you agree?

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[tony&rodney]

Morris is going to begin to receive better luck on balls in play. Part of that is due to the laws of things averaging out (does that happen in life) but a larger part of it is that the Twins are trending towards using better defenders in the field. For three years I have seen Morris give up "hits" due to both poor fielding and bad luck (broken bats and squib bloopers).

A thing to remember is that the year started with Morris working on his pitches in AAA games. The changeup, cutter, and other breaking pitches are not yet refined. At the MLB level Morris is working to get outs and he has relied on the heat. In time there is a good chance that we see Andrew gaining further command of all of his pitches and finding success. I have seen a few comments that question his stuff (perhaps based on various metrics). I see really good stuff that is a work in progress. It was interesting to hear Glen Perkins, who may know a thing or two about pitching, state that Andrew Morris clearly has the best stuff of any pitcher in the Twins bullpen. Morris is trending up.

Morris doing well has not surprised me in the least and he could still be a mid rotation starter at some point. Baseball goes through phases and we may be seeing more pitchers being used in relief before they transition to the rotation. Rojas may be another example for the Twins. We might also see pitchers push pitch counts up past 100 more often when they are rolling along effectively. In the short term Morris has been used in numerous high leverage spots and is gaining the confidence of his coaches and manager.

[MinnInPa]

i dont get to see many games live... but following on live feeds doesnt show a reliever that can be counted on to shut any team down .. just like every single Twins reliever

[bean5302]

Might have something to do with:

[Trov]

Part of things is they need to decide is he going to be a full back end guy or not.  If he is, he can change his pitching usage to really work on 2 or 3 max and drop the pitches that are weakest.  When you are only expected to go 1 inning 2 max you do not need as much of a mix of pitches because hitters will not see you a second time, hopefully. 

[mike8791]

With a 1.56 WHIP and .295 BA against, how in the world is Mathews a potential late inning stalwart.? Yes, his K/9 is good, as is his K:BB ratio., but an effective reliever should at least have a WHIP<1.20 and BAA< .250.  No matter how you interpret his #s, there is just no way you can count on this guy.

It is a testament to Zoll's ineptness that he has not added at least one stopper-type reliever in the 6 months he has been in charge.  Which is why I hope he sits on his hands once more thru the trading deadline for fear he gives up valuable assets like Ryan and Jeffers for more "prospects".  I shudder to think what a well-run org. will be able to foist on such a clueless guy.

[thelanges5]

Seems like a little bit of a hierarchy is settling in for the bullpen. Gómez as the closer, Morris and Banda as the setup guys. Banda probably gets dealt at the deadline though. 

[Linus]

He reminds me of Varland when he first came up. The fastball is there but the secondary pitches are lacking. Louis dialed in the knuckle curve and took off. Hopefully Morris can find at least one other pitch to complement the good fastball. 

[jmlease1]

Morris makes sense as a reliever, and with some experience should be able to adjust his offerings to a mix that will be impactful on a more consistent basis. He's got the velocity to do some things, and the potential is there. He was unlikely to make it as anything more than a 5th starter/swingman, so this looks like a better fit, and it's nice to have a high velocity reliever back there (finally).

He's not there yet, but you can see the vision. Now...who else is going to get tapped for this? They need at least 2 more internally.

[rdehring]

Can he become a very good late inning guy?  I really hope so. 

Regardless of what anyone says, this season has to be a year when the Twins answer some questions and get long looks at more than a half dozen young guys on the horizon (hopefully several of them will get and stay healthy).  Morris wasn't one many thought would be in that position last winter.  Yet, he has worked his way into the mix.  Looks to me that he is one of the guys the Twins will be counting on as they work to build out their 2027 bullpen.  

[JBK]

Unreliable, so far.........................

[DJL44]

1 hour ago, mike8791 said:

With a 1.56 WHIP and .295 BA against, how in the world is Mathews a potential late inning stalwart.? Yes, his K/9 is good, as is his K:BB ratio., but an effective reliever should at least have a WHIP<1.20 and BAA< .250.  No matter how you interpret his #s, there is just no way you can count on this guy.

That’s true if you think he’s a finished product incapable of improving. I don’t think that is true. He is making adjustments and learning.

[Sjoski]

It's a nice thought, and I truly hope Morris continues to improve. 

Problem is:

One bullpen success story doesn't make up for several failures.

 ○ Simeon Woods Richardson

○ Luis Garcia

○ Justin Topa

○ Christian Roa

○ Zak Kent

■ whose next...Lawrence and  Laweryson? 

[Sjoski]

Hmmm...Speaking of SWR....

3 Scoresless innings yesterday vs Boston and he picks up the WIN.

7 perfect innings for Toronto now.

What a bitter pill to swallow when a guy just DFA'ed immediately figured it out somewhere else....  meanwhile the Twins bullpen is still trying to patch together enough clean innings to survive the week.

[Western SD Fan]

24 minutes ago, Sjoski said:

Hmmm...Speaking of SWR....

3 Scoresless innings yesterday vs Boston and he picks up the WIN.

7 perfect innings for Toronto now.

What a bitter pill to swallow when a guy just DFA'ed immediately figured it out somewhere else....  meanwhile the Twins bullpen is still trying to patch together enough clean innings to survive the week.

I watched his outing last night.  His line was a bit deceiving.  He gave up 3 hits, 3 walks and only 1 K in 59 pitches over those 3 innings.  He was also bailed out twice by the Blue Jays defense and once by a freak ball that hit Duran while he was on base that would have put runners on first and second with nobody out.  I will suggest that SWR is a better pitcher when he has a league-average defense behind him rather than the league's worst defense.  He certainly doesn't have his mechanics figured out yet to be a "I told you so" candidate.

[Twinsrtheworst]

3 hours ago, MinnInPa said:

i dont get to see many games live... but following on live feeds doesnt show a reliever that can be counted on to shut any team down .. just like every single Twins reliever

I appreciate your take. But I believe if you actually watched him pitch you would see the growth from last year and potential is there, his commitment is there, the experience is not there..yet. Did you expect an instant star? Rarely do prospects in a new role ever start the first 3 months as adamant success stories. Having watched him in person on Twins Tv, MiLB tv as well. To judge a player by live feeds and 2 months doesn’t validate anything unfortunately your statement that he can’t be counted on. That you can count on.

[BillyBallLives]

1 hour ago, Western SD Fan said:

He certainly doesn't have his mechanics figured out yet to be a "I told you so" candidate.

7 innings is a sample size, neither small nor huge.....guess we'll just watch and wait. But isn't the bigger question:  is there something else going on here?

Did SWR just NOT want to be in Minnesota? If so why?  

[arby58]

18 minutes ago, BillyBallLives said:

7 innings is a sample size, neither small nor huge.....guess we'll just watch and wait. But isn't the bigger question:  is there something else going on here?

Did SWR just NOT want to be in Minnesota? If so why?  

Shouldn’t the same question be posed to the TB Rays related to Gomez? He had 17.1 IP with the Rays, a 6.23 ERA, 1.673 WHIP, and a -0.3 WAR. In 17.2 IP with the Twins he has a 1.53 ERA, 1.019 WHIP, and a WAR of 0.9.

[LA Vikes Fan]

3 hours ago, DJL44 said:

That’s true if you think he’s a finished product incapable of improving. I don’t think that is true. He is making adjustments and learning.

Excellent comment. Looking at someone’s year long statistics when they’re just arriving at the Major league level can be very misleading . Morris has definitely improved since he joined the big club. I personally think that he and Gomez have a better than 50/50 probability of developing into solid to very good late inning relievers and Gomez could actually be a closer. Banda is what he always has been with the Dodgers, a decent, but not great left-handed reliever who struggles with right handed hitting. He’s definitely worth keeping around, I wouldn’t trade him at the deadline unless we have someone to replace him, but he’s not the answer to our need for at least one more dependable late inning arm.
 

The Twins really need another solid late inning guy. Rodgers, Lawyerson, and Orze maybe be decent middle relievers, but but they are definitely not that guy. Adams and Lawrence should be pitching in AAA or for somebody else. My hope is that Rojas will come back and be that back end force from the left side that we need. I really think the bullpen is not that far off from actually being pretty good. Lose Adams and Lawrence, and replace them with Rojas as a late inning guy and Paredes as your primary Long man and you actually have a decent bullpen. 

[DocBauer]

My answer is YES.

IMO, his ERA is a bit misleading. Not only is he a rookie, but he's been bounced about as a middle guy and a late guy and a situation guy. 

A couple of his early appearances, he looked really good for a couple of innings, and then gaved up runs in his 3rd inning. I really didn't understand him being the "starter" in a BP game a week ago. He didn't do well. (I forget which game it was, sorry). But it robbed the Twins of having him available in that game, and the next. Couldn't SOMEONE else have been that designated starter?

ERA is often a misnomer in regard to actual production. Some of his runs allowed are due to those early appearances where he was stretched. Moriss is NOT a finished product as a rookie. Do we actually expect him to be so?

Sorry for a bad memory, but he was brought in earlier than I expected for the last Cardinals game, or was it against the Rangers? And then I realized he was brought in to face the heart of the lineup. So Shelton has decided he's the FIREMAN in the bullpen currently. 

He reminds me a lot of Jax. He still has a repertoire of a SP. And that's not a bad thing. We often talk about a RP honing their repertoire down to only 2 pitches, 3 max. But Jax was so good not only due to velocity increases, but he kept playing with other offerings. If you recall, even Duran played around and developed different offerings. 

I think we need to dismess Morris's ERA, and concentrate on his development this season. There will be speed bumps here and there, but he's starting to develop in to a legitimate back end of the pen arm. It takes time. But he's looking more and more like an arm we can trust. 

 

[DocBauer]

Just want to ad that CJ Culpepper has been looking pretty good at AAA with his conversation to the pen so far.

And while Rojas might still end up in the rotation at some point, he's looking more and more like an amazing BP arm. And I still believe if the Twins would just make Klein a 1-2 IP option, he might surprise.