How the player the NY Mets traded for Paul Blackburn is doing with the Athletics

The New York Mets didn’t make a huge splash at the 2024 trade deadline. Instead, they opted to cast a wide net and acquired a handful of smaller pieces. One trade they made was sending pitching prospect Kade Morris to the Athletics for right-hander Paul Blackburn. Nearly a year later, this trade has aged very poorly for the Mets.

Morris was a third-round draft pick by the Mets in 2023. Although he did well for A-Ball St. Lucie and High-A Brooklyn, he struggled down the line after getting traded to the A’s. However, he’s put up solid numbers this season, including a 3.34 ERA, 4.24 FIP, and 1.17 WHIP across 86.1 innings of work for the Athletics’ Double-A and Triple-A minor league affiliates.

Morris hasn’t struck out many batters with only a 19.7% K%. However, he does limit walks at a strong rate, with a 5.6% BB%. Among the 201 minor league pitchers who have made at least a dozen starts this season, Morris has the 30th lowest walk percentage. It also helps that he is good at keeping the ball in the park, with a 0.83 HR/9.

The Paul Blackburn trade looks even worse after Kade Morris' breakout.

Morris’ numbers have taken a step back since getting promoted to Triple-A. He has a 4.15 ERA, 15% K%, 1.56 HR/9, and saw his BB% go from 5.3% at Double-A to 6.1% since his promotion. However, he is pitching in the Pacific Coast League. The average ERA is well over 5.00 at 5.45, and the average OPS is .803. However, Morris now ranks as a top 15 prospect in the A’s system. Both Baseball America and MLB Pipeline rank him as the organization’s 13th-best prospect.

Meanwhile, Blackburn has mostly struggled since joining the Mets. He has only tossed 43 innings, but has a 6.43 ERA, 4.46 FIP, and 1.74 WHIP. Blackburn may have a solid 7% walk rate, but has only struck out 17% of batters with a 1.26 HR/9. The right-hander has gotten burned by a .387 batting average on balls in play, despite a respectable 87.4 MPH exit velocity and 7.4% barrel percentage, but he’s never been even a league-average pitcher to start with. His best ERA+ was 95 in 2023; he has never pitched 120+ innings and has a career +2.5 bWAR in nearly 450 innings. He also missed the first two months of the 2025 season due to knee inflammation.

This trade was questionable at the time. Morris was putting up decent numbers in the Mets' system, while Blackburn was a 5th/6th starter at best. The Mets cannot make a mistake during this year’s trade deadline like they did last year. Blackburn has allowed the fifth most earned runs on the Mets since they acquired him. He’s done that in less than 50 innings. Meanwhile, Morris has ascended to be one of the Athletics’ more promising pitching prospects.