Yankees place hard-throwing reliever on 15-day IL with hip injury

The New York Yankees have had an impressive bullpen to open the season, and one of their favorite options early on has been Nick Burdi. They’ll now have to manage without him, as he hits the IL with a right hip injury, but this isn’t necessarily shocking to those who have followed Burdi closely over the years. Injuries have held him back time after time again, but this isn’t as concerning as an elbow or shoulder problem would be.

We don’t have many details regarding the extent of his injury, but the location of the injury usually gives us an initial sign of how bad things could be. As we get more information regarding how long he’ll be shut down for and what exactly he’s dealing with, then a timeline could become a bit clearer. The Yankees are promoting Cody Morris in his place, and the right-hander has experience as a starter and reliever at the Major League level.

With the Cleveland Guardians, Morris had a 3.41 ERA and 32 strikeouts across 31.2 innings pitched, but a high HR/9 rate (1.72) and walk rate (13%) have caused underlying metrics to like him a lot less. His 5.30 FIP and 4.42 xFIP suggest he probably wouldn’t sustain his run prevention over a larger sample size, but he’s off to a strong start with the Scranton RailRiders in Triple-A.

Batters have a 12.5% Barrel Rate against him in his brief MLB career, so to combat that the Yankees have had Cody Morris utilize his changeup a lot more, a pitch that has had a lot of early success. The Whiff Rate hasn’t been high (23.1%), but batters have a .325 xwOBACON against it, and the pitch helps play up his four-seamer. Over the past two years the fastball has been hammered, but in Triple-A he has a .156 wOBA allowed and 26.3% Whiff Rate, which could have to do with how much his ability to change eye levels has improved.

The cutter has become his primary pitch, with a 42.9% Whiff Rate and .276 wOBA against, looking a lot more like it did in 2022 when he had a strong season as a spot starter and reliever. He keeps the ball on the ground, and perhaps he could emerge as a multi-inning relief option for the Bronx Bombers. This move also comes with the aforementioned activation of Taylor Trammell, who has some legit raw power but no feel for contact, similar to a player like Estevan Florial whom ironically was traded for Morris.