Morris competing for depth role on Guardians' pitching staff

GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- Just because all five of last year’s starters are back in Guardians uniforms heading into the 2023 season doesn’t mean that all the pitching decisions are figured out.

Shane Bieber, Triston McKenzie, Cal Quantrill, Aaron Civale and Zach Plesac are -- at this point -- expected to fill the rotation. What’s left to determine is how the depth chart plays out from there. It’s unreasonable to assume that all five starters would remain healthy for the entire season, especially since Civale and Plesac have had health hiccups the last few years.

The Guardians will need to have pitching depth, and a handful of those arms that will be the answers are in big league camp right now.

Righty Cody Morris would have been high on many people’s lists to be one of the first called on to take an open starting spot, but now, it’s a little harder to project his future. The lat muscle that’s been giving him trouble the last couple of seasons is acting up again, according to Guardians manager Terry Francona, and now the club will need to slowly ramp him up over the next six weeks.

“We’re being ultra conservative with him,” Francona said.

There’s a reason the Guardians were so excited to call Morris up immediately after he finished his rehab assignment last year. He didn’t have enough time to get stretched out as a starter, so he ended up working out of Cleveland’s bullpen and gave up just six earned runs in 23 2/3 innings (2.28 ERA). He falls in the same category as a handful of other hurlers: Will they be starters or relievers in the big leagues? These answers won’t come over the next month, but this window will help give the Guardians an idea of what areas need to be filled.

There’s at least one bullpen spot open, depending on the rest of the expected relief corps’ health. And as we already said, the Guardians will need to have protection for their rotation ready in Triple-A.

Let’s quickly take a look at who Cleveland needs to get eyes on in big league camp to sort through these decisions:

Starters
Jason Bilous (on 40-man)
Xzavion Curry (on 40-man)
Hunter Gaddis (on 40-man)
Konnor Pilkington (on 40-man)
Logan Allen
Peyton Battenfield

Starters or relievers
Morris (on 40-man)
Joey Cantillo (on 40-man)
Touki Toussaint

Relievers
Tim Herrin (on 40-man)
Caleb Baragar
Phillip Diehl
Michael Kelly
Dusten Knight
Nick Mikolajchak
Luis Oviedo
Caleb Simpson
Cade Smith

Maybe by the end of the season, more of those in the “starters” category will find a new home. But for now, this is the best guess at who falls where during the early days of Spring Training. And if Morris isn’t healthy, it’ll be harder to determine what his role should be.

“At worst -- ‘worst’ isn’t the right word -- he’s going to be a multi-inning reliever,” Francona said. “We’re trying to figure out with him what puts him in the best position to succeed long term. And we’re just frankly not sure. So, we’re trying to gather information and talk to him because the kid can pitch a little bit. Just trying to figure out what role helps us, helps him and keeps him healthy.”

Cantillo, who added significant velocity in 2022, could be a fun addition to the bullpen even though he’s seen nearly all of his Minor League time as a starter. He hasn’t thrown more than 61 innings in a season since ’19, he’s battled injuries the last few years and, with his improved velocity, all of these factors could lean Cleveland toward throwing him in the ‘pen.

Teams always have an idea of how their respective rosters should shake out heading into Spring Training. Huge decisions are rarely impacted by Spring Training performances, but it’ll be critical for the Guardians to get eyes on everyone in camp to help get an idea of who belongs where.

“You never want to minimize what guys are doing in Spring Training,” Francona said, “but I do think the fact of somebody winning a job in Spring Training, I think that can be a little -- I don’t want to say disingenuous, but when you really think about it, somebody’s going to throw five or six innings. If they pick the wrong day to pitch when the wind’s blowing out over in Maryvale that could eliminate somebody statistically.

“You look at their background, what they’ve done, where does it fit and then if they’re doing well that certainly helps.”