More than seven years after graduating from Reservoir High as certainly one of Howard County’s best pitchers, Cody Morris can formally say he’s made it.
After a number of setbacks, together with Tommy John elbow reconstruction surgical procedure in 2015 after main the Gators to their solely state championship in 2014 and a prolonged stint on the injured record earlier this 12 months as he neared a possible call-up, Morris formally joined the Cleveland Guardians on Thursday after being activated off the IL.
Morris, one of many Guardians’ two September call-ups, has been within the minor leagues since early July rehabbing from a shoulder pressure he suffered in March. He’s dominated in Triple-A Columbus, posting a 2.35 ERA in six video games, together with three begins.
Now the 25-year-old Laurel native is ready to make his long-awaited Major League Baseball debut.
Longtime Reservoir baseball coach Adam Leader mentioned he acquired “the greatest text in the world” Tuesday evening when Morris merely wrote: “Hey coach, I’m going to the bigs.”
Morris went 669 days between begins — from September 2019 till July 2021 — after the 2020 minor league season was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic and a lat muscle harm that delayed his 2021 marketing campaign. But when he lastly took the mound final summer season, he shortly made his mark. In 61 innings throughout the Arizona Complex League, Double-A Akron and Triple-A Columbus, he had a 1.62 ERA with 93 strikeouts and 20 walks in 15 video games (14 begins).
“My biggest goal is to stay healthy,” Morris instructed The Baltimore Sun in August 2021. “I’ve had too many injuries in my career already, and you’ve got to stay on the field to keep moving up.”
After the season, the Guardians added Morris to the 40-man roster, however he suffered a pressure of the teres main muscle in his proper shoulder and was shut down in March.
“He’s battled so much and he’s such a great person and great competitor. Obviously I knew this was his goal all along. The fact that he’s getting half this opportunity is incredible,” mentioned Leader, who plans to journey to Cleveland for Thursday’s recreation. “He’s a guy that’s just worked through everything, injury, worked through the system, just kept working hard and through COVID with the season being canceled. He was a person that had a lot of obstacles in his way, persevered through it and is being rewarded for that hard work.”
Baseball America ranks Morris, who was initially drafted within the thirty second spherical out of highschool by the Orioles however opted to pitch for the University of South Carolina, the Guardians’ twenty sixth finest prospect, whereas MLB Pipeline has him No. 15.
Morris, a 6-foot-4 right-hander, got here out of the bullpen in his final two appearances in Triple-A and struck out six with one stroll and no hits allowed throughout three scoreless innings.
According to The Athletic, Morris’ Triple-A supervisor Andy Tracy instructed the 2018 seventh-round draft decide that they had been sending him right down to High-A to construct him again up as a starter. Morris was puzzled earlier than Tracy mentioned, “Make sure to stop by Progressive Field on your way in. That’s where you’re going.”
At Reservoir, Morris was a three-time Howard County Pitcher of the Year and compiled 22 victories and greater than 250 strikeouts with an ERA underneath 1.00. In the 2014 Class 3A state championship recreation, Morris threw 85 pitches (60 strikes), permitting solely two hits and two walks whereas putting out 11 for a complete-game shutout in a 2-0 win over North Harford.
This story could also be up to date.
()
Source: www.bostonherald.com