NEW YORK Pitcher Cody Morris, who began the season at Triple-A but was brought up on April 19, was using the first locker on the left in the Yankees clubhouse this week.
This week, Morris was in high spirits as he spoke soccer with a reporter prior to a match. Manchester United is one of his favorite Premier League teams. Before becoming a parent, he expressed his wish that he had gone to the UK to see a United game at Old Trafford.
He said, “It would be hard now.”
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RESTORING THE GLAMOR
Morris’s pinstripe debut will have to wait a little while longer. Following the Yankees’ 3-1 defeat to the Athletics on Thursday night, the right-hander was farmed out after spending seven games in the bullpen without seeing action.
Morris was released by the Yankees in order to make room on the roster for reliever Michael Tonkin, who was taken off waivers by the Mets earlier on Thursday.
Tonkin, 34, was activated on Friday and will start the Yankees’ series opener in Milwaukee from the bullpen.
The right-hander, who started the season with the Mets and was dealt to the Twins for cash on April 9 before coming back to the Mets on April 17 on a waiver claim, will be playing for his third team this season.
Tonkin pitched to a 6.00 ERA in six games—five with the Mets and one with the Twins—allowing 12 runs, six earned, on 10 hits over nine innings with 11 strikeouts and 4 walks. In 192 bullpen appearances over seven seasons with the Twins (2013–17, 2024), Braves (2023), and Mets (2024), he has a 4.44 lifetime ERA.
With a.133 batting average against opponents this season, Tonkin’s slider is his finest pitching asset. According to Baseball Savant, he employs the pitch 33.9 percent of the time and has an average velo of 82.5 mph. In addition, he throws a lot of sinkers (29 percent) and four-seam fastballs (29.5 percent).
Morris, 27, plans to pitch his way back to the major leagues by going back to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He threw to a 1.93 ERA in four games with the RailRiders, one as a starter, with 11 strikeouts and six walks in 9 1/3 innings prior to his brief stay with the Yankees.
On December 26, the Yankees traded outfielder Estevan Florial to the Guardians in exchange for Morris. Having played in the major leagues for portions of the previous two seasons, he was 1-2 with a 2.28 ERA in seven games (five starts) in 2022 and 0-0 with a 6.75 ERA in six bullpen appearances the previous season with Cleveland.
