NEW YORK — The Yankees traded former top prospect Estevan Florial to the Cleveland Guardians for right-hander Cody Morris on Tuesday.
Morris, 27, will make his major league debut in September 2022 and has a 6.75 ERA in six appearances with the Guardians this year, striking out nine and striking out six in eight innings. His fastball averaged 95.2 miles per hour, and he threw a cutter, a curveball and a changeup.
Morris is 2-1 with a 3.23 ERA with 56 strikeouts and 27 walks in 39 innings over four starts and 17 in relief this year with Triple-A Columbus and Double-A Akron.
New York appeared to have a surplus of outfielders after acquiring Juan Soto and Trent Grisham from San Diego and Alex Verdugo from Boston.
Florial, a 26-year-old outfielder, signed with the Yankees in 2015 and was considered a top prospect by MLB.com in 2019 before falling to sixth in 2020, 10th in 2021 and 30th in 2022.
He made his major league debut in 2020 and has played just 48 major league games over four seasons with a .209 batting average, one home run, 11 RBIs and six stolen bases.
Florial hit .230 with eight RBIs and three stolen bases in 19 games with the Yankees this year and a .284 average, 28 homers, 79 RBIs and 25 stolen bases in 101 games with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre of the Triple-TO .
