![\"Andrew](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/STP-Z-TWINS-0608-02.jpg\")
Minnesota Twins pitcher Andrew Morris wipes his face as he walks off the field during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals, Sunday, June 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (Matt Krohn \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\nWhen the Twins packed up and headed north from spring training in March, there were still pressing questions about their bullpen. After the team dealt Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax and Louie Varland at last summer\u2019s trade deadline, a big one was who could step up and pitch high-leverage this season?<\/p>\n
The Twins found one of the answers waiting in the wings in the Triple-A rotation, 24-year-old rookie Andrew Morris.<\/p>\n
Minnesota Twins pitcher Andrew Morris wipes his face as he walks off the field during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals, Sunday, June 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (Matt Krohn \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I caught him in spring training picking up a spot start, did I expect him to be throwing 100 (mph) out of our bullpen?\u201d catcher Ryan Jeffers said. \u201cAbsolutely not, but it\u2019s really cool to see. He\u2019s an absolute bulldog.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Twins turned to Morris early in the season, calling him up on April 11, and he has filled a variety of roles since. At the beginning of the season, he was still stretched out and throwing multiple innings in each outing, and even started a couple of bullpen games. Lately, he has settled in nicely as a high-leverage option out of the \u2018pen.<\/p>\n
Entering Tuesday night\u2019s game at Cleveland, Morris has not given up a run since June 10, a stretch that spans 18 innings over 16 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting to experience everything, from being in Fenway and pitching in those moments and having (Taylor Rogers) come save me, to being able to just go out there and just get guys out and dominate \u2026 makes everything the next time feel more normal, I guess,\u201d Morris said. \u201cIt\u2019s good to be able to do everything and know that I\u2019ve been in every situation possible for the most part.\u201d<\/p>\n
Entering Tuesday, Morris had posted a 3.26 earned-run average in 47 innings pitched. That\u2019s the most innings from any Twins reliever, and his 36 appearances were tied for third with Eric Orze, who is not currently in the major leagues.<\/p>\n
The Twins have converted a number of young starters into strong relievers in recent years \u2014 Duran, Jax, and Varland among them \u2014 and Morris could be the next success story.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing we talked about with Andrew is the transition from being a starter, going from that four-day bulk thing in Triple-A, and then going into a major league bullpen was just learning how to do it,\u201d manager Derek Shelton said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen the stuff play up. It\u2019s just getting the reps. It\u2019s getting continued leveraged situations, and he\u2019s solidified himself in the back end of our bullpen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morris and Yoendrys Gomez, who has 11 saves and a 1.65 ERA since being picked up in a minor trade with Tampa Bay in early May, have proved dependable at the back end of what has been a shaky bullpen.<\/p>\n
What makes Morris well-suited for high leverage opportunities, Shelton said, is his \u201clack of heartbeat.\u201d \u00a0He doesn\u2019t get too high or too low, the manager said, and all the changes thrown at him haven\u2019t seemed to affect him much.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s starting to feel normal, for sure,\u201d Morris said. \u201cIt\u2019s building confidence along the way. I feel like every day I\u2019m still learning something, getting to learn from all these guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since the middle of June, Morris has primarily appeared in games from the seventh inning and later.<\/p>\n
While he said he believes he\u2019s ready to go all the time, no matter the situation, having some knowledge of when he might appear in a game does \u201ckind of help me feel some consistency,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cGuys have started to grab ahold of identities, and he\u2019s one of those guys that you want \u2026 on the mound. That\u2019s one of those guys,\u201d Jeffers said. \u201cHe\u2019s been good.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Twins packed up and headed north from spring training in March, there were still pressing questions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":757827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2388],"tags":[5,19,822,60,3190,4,148],"class_list":["post-757826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota-twins","tag-baseball","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-minnesotatwins","tag-mlb","tag-twins"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116959464929188423","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}