How did the prospect A's received from New York Mets fare in the second half?

Jason Burke | Oct 30, 2024

Nevada's Kade Morris pitches gainst Dixie State at Mackay Stadium on March 16, 2022. Nevada Baseball Kade Morris / Andy Barron/RGJ / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Oakland A's and New York Mets made a deal at the trade deadline, sending Paul Blackburn from the Bay Area while the Mets sent right-hander Kade Morris to the A's farm system. Blackburn is set to miss a bit of time after undergoing surgery last week.

Morris, 22, was born in Modesto and went to college at Nevada. He was selected by the Mets in the third round of the 2023 Draft and made his brief pro debut later that year. 2024 was his first full season in pro ball, and he spent the majority of his time in High-A split between the Mets and A's affiliates in Brooklyn and Lansing.

After starting the year in A ball and getting into seven games, six starts, Morris was 0-3 with a 3.63 ERA and a 1.30 WHIP. He also ran a 25.5% strikeout rate with a 7.4% walk rate, earning him a promotion to Brooklyn. In High-A he collected his only wins on the year, going 4-3 with a 3.43 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP, while his strikeout rate (23.3%) and walk rate (7.8) stayed roughly the same across 57 2/3 innings.

After the trade to the A's, Morris reported to Lansing where he struggled a little bit, going 0-6 with a 5.92 ERA and a 1.37 WHIP, while his strikeout rate tanked to 14.2%. His walk rate also went down to 6.5%, but he was hit fairly hard, giving up a .273 batting average against in 38 innings.

In the middle of September, Morris was also promoted to Triple-A Las Vegas, as teams will do late in the season as injuries pile up and fresh arms are lacking, and gave him two appearances with the Aviators to give him a sense of what the level is like.

In his first outing, he went three innings out of the bullpen, allowing just one hit, walking two and striking out two, while earning the save. He was given a start for his next outing, and lasted just 2 2/3 innings against El Paso, giving up seven runs on eight hits, two walks and recording zero strikeouts for the first time all season. He ended the year with a cumulative 4.50 ERA in 136 innings across all stops.

Obviously it's a tough way to end the season, but the experience in Vegas will hopefully propel him into 2025 with Double-A Midland presumably in his future fairly soon.

Morris is ranked as the A's No. 19 prospect by MLB Pipeline and No. 17 by FanGraphs. Pipeline believes that he's missing "a tick or two more of sharpness" to become a back-end starter. He has a diverse pitch mix with a couple of low-to-mid-90s fastballs, and a trio of sliders (hard, cutter, sweeper) along with a curveball and a changeup. If he becomes more of a relief option down the road, he could trim that mix down to his best three offerings and see how he fares.

Morris isn't likely to make an impact in 2025, given the growth that the A's will need to see from him in the coming year, but with some solid gains on the bump he could be in the mix to be a contributor in 2026. He's certainly a guy to keep an eye on.