WEST SACRAMENTO — Although Willie MacIver and Kade Morris have never been batterymates in a game, the two are very familiar with each other. After Morris dazzled over the weekend with the Las Vegas Aviators in his third minor league start at Sutter Health Park — nine strikeouts while allowing just three hits and a walk over six shutout innings in a 12-0 win over the River Cats — MacIver couldn’t help but smile over the success of his former teammate.
“I’m so excited for him,” MacIver said Monday ahead of the Athletics’ series opener against the Boston Red Sox. “Kade’s got all the talent in the world, so that’s never been an issue for him… I think Kade Morris has a ton of potential. He's going to be a really good pitcher.”
MacIver was teammates with Morris for the entirety of July in Triple-A before being recalled back to the majors by the A’s on Aug. 5. The two had a handful of bullpen sessions together. But it was a month of adjustments for the 23-year-old Morris, a right-hander who is the No. 16 prospect in the Athletics farm system, per MLB Pipeline. In five starts, Morris posted a 1-3 record with a 8.18 ERA (20 earned runs on 20 hits and 12 walks).
Two of those July appearances came at the ballpark in West Sacramento, which is being shared between the A’s and the River Cats. The first was on July 22, as Morris took the mound for his first professional appearance in his home state of California. He battled through five innings in which he gave up seven earned runs on seven hits and four walks while punching out six in an 8-0 loss. Five days later in the series finale, he was ejected after a three-run first inning for arguing balls and strikes.
But as the calendar flipped, so has the script for Morris. Over his last seven starts, Morris has a 4-1 record with 37 strikeouts while surrendering 21 earned runs on 46 hits and 12 walks in 36 2/3 frames.
“He’s got really good stuff and a really good idea of what he's trying to do on the mound,” MacIver said. “I think the biggest thing for him is slowing the game down a little bit and not letting his emotions get the best of him. His intensity on the mound is awesome, and I think that's going to be really beneficial for him in his career, and his mindset when he's on the mound is great. But there's, you got to find a happy medium with everything… When he harnesses that the right way, he's going to be able to use it to his advantage. And when he does that, it's going to be really awesome.
“I think he's going through a learning curve right now, and the PCL (Pacific Coast League) is not an easy league to pitch in. So he's learning that right now, and I think it's only going to be beneficial for him in the end. He's got a bright future.”
The PCL is notorious for being a hitter-friendly league with several of its stadiums in high-altitude, dry-air cities. With just two weeks left in the PCL regular season, the team with the lowest combined ERA is Sugar Land (Houston Astros) with a mark of 4.95.
Also keeping a watchful eye on what Morris is doing down on the farm is fellow Turlocker Tyler Soderstrom. The two played travel ball for a short time up until they branched off to the local high schools, Morris to Pitman High and Soderstrom to Turlock High. Soderstrom’s father, former big leaguer Steve, even helped Morris develop some of his early mechanics at the family’s Backyard Sports Academy.
“We go way back, and I've been keeping up with him, though it is just kind of hard during the season when we’re trying to focus on what's in front of us up here,” Soderstrom said Tuesday. “But I’ve been following his career since he went to (University of Nevada) Reno, but haven’t spoken to him much. But I know he's been pitching good since we traded for him from the Mets. And that's been cool to see, and hopefully he gets through soon."
The A’s acquired Morris, the 101st overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft, just minutes before last year’s trade deadline in a one-for-one deal involving former All-Star Paul Blackburn.
“I've heard some stories of him and that energy that he has on the mound, so it'd be kind of cool to see it out here, him being all fired up,” Soderstrom said with a laugh. “It would be awesome to experience that sooner rather than later.”
While in Vegas, Morris has also had to adjust to a new catcher. Behind the dish for six of his first eight Triple-A starts was Jhonny Pereda, who had a cup of coffee in the majors this season. In each of those games, Morris went more than five innings. But after Pereda was designated for assignment on July 19, Morris’ primary catching partner became Daniel Susac, the club’s No. 12 prospect. Despite the struggles together in late July, the two have remained a battery, and the chemistry has slowly developed.
“It kind of depends on the guy, because there's guys where it can take just one bullpen (session) with and you're on the same page,” MacIver explained. “And there's other guys who it takes five starts, maybe, to where you can get on the same page. Kade specifically, is a guy who has a lot of different pitches.”
Morris’ pitch repertoire includes a four-seam fastball, curveball, sinker, slider and changeup. He sports a 6-7 record with a 5.56 ERA and 70 strikeouts through 87 1/3 Triple-A innings.
“He can backdoor, he can frontdoor. He's got all this stuff to work with, and with a guy like that, the hard thing is trying to get in his head as a catcher and see what he likes to do at what time,” MacIver said. “It just takes time. It takes bullpens, it takes a lot of conversations, but the most important thing is getting to know them as a person just as much as getting to know them as a pitcher. It's a process.”
Soderstrom knows it all too well. He was drafted in the first round in 2020 as a catcher and even continued playing the position during spring training this year before finding a balance between left field and first base in the majors.
“Going through the minor leagues, I'd say for me at least, it was kind of hard to build chemistry just because I moved up (the farm system) fairly quick,” Soderstrom said. “There's always an influx of pitchers who are going up and down, and you're not really around them as much as you may need to be. Kade and Willie have a good relationship, which is always cool and good to have.”
MacIver praised his fellow catcher, Susac, in learning the ropes alongside Morris.
“Susac is great at all of that,” MacIver said. “He does a great job and I think they're at a point right now, and even when I was down there in Vegas, where he was catching Kade a lot. I think that will only help the two of them.
“Kade’s on the right path, and I’m wishing him nothing but the best. It would be really cool for him to be up here in the big leagues with us.”
