Glew: Determined Morrison has taken unlikely path to Rangers

Great Lake Canadians and Waterloo Warriors alum Evan Morrison (Mitchell, Ont.) takes some cuts at the Texas Rangers’ development complex in Surprise, Ariz. during his first week in pro baseball. Photo supplied.

July 30, 2026

By Kevin Glew

Canadian Baseball Network

To say Evan Morrison has taken an unconventional road to a pro baseball career would be an understatement.

The 23-year-old, who grew up near Mitchell, Ont., zig-zagged his way through one Ontario university, two U.S. colleges and three different summer teams prior to being selected in the 10th round of the MLB draft by the Texas Rangers on July 12.

The 5-foot-11, 200-pound infielder has had to work for every break he has gotten in baseball. And he started his pro baseball career last week despite never being invited to the Canadian Futures Showcase or to a try out for the Junior National Team.

Instead, as a teenager, he flew under the radar of scouts while honing his skills in the Great Lake Canadians (GLC) program.

Chris Robinson, GLC's director of baseball operations, watched the young two-way player help his program's teams win games on the mound, at the plate and in the field for five years.

"The things Evan did well, at a very elite level for us, weren't necessarily showing up in box scores," said Robinson, when asked why Morrison had been overlooked by scouts during his teens. "He was just super consistent in everything he did. He ran well, but he never really ran at an elite level and he threw well but he never really threw at an elite level. There's just no real evaluator for 'Hey, this guy is just a great all-around baseball player.'"

Morrison, Robinson says, is an "old school type ballplayer, where it's performance over tools."

And it turns out that's not a bad reputation to have. In fact, it was largely that regard that convinced Texas Rangers scout Chris Collias to vouch for Morrison during the draft.

"It's rare today on the amateur side that guys can actually 'play' the game," said Collias. "Everybody is manufactured. Everybody learns to hit in the lab or they learn to pitch in a lab or in an indoor training facility. You never really drive by a park anymore and see anybody actually playing. You rarely see people quote unquote 'playing' the game. They 'work' the game. This guy, I think his biggest strength is that he's got high baseball character which means to me that he loves the game, he loves being at the yard. He loves to work."

That love for baseball was instilled in him by his father, James, who signed him up to play softball in Sebringville, Ont., in 2008 when he was five. He continued to play softball until he joined a baseball team in Mitchell when he was eight.

Morrison was a standout shortstop and pitcher in the Mitchell minor ball ranks and when he was 12, he was called up to play in an older age bracket.

The following year, he joined the Great Lake Canadians (GLC) as a two-way player and he'd spend five years in the organization.

"When I first got there [to GLC] I was 13 and I was not one of the better players on the team. I was super skinny and didn't have a ton of self-confidence," recalled Morrison. "But the coaches there are awesome. They helped me tremendously and I grew into my body a little bit."

Evan Morrison pitched in the Great Lake Canadians organization for five years as a teenager. Photo: Jon Fitzsimmons/GLC

Robinson was impressed early on with Morrison.

"As a pitcher, Evan wouldn't light up the radar gun, but he could pitch," recalled Robinson. "He was such an advanced player – the way he thought the game. So, he would be the guy who would play in the infield all weekend and then if we needed someone to jump in and close out the final game [on the mound] we'd bring him in."

Robinson also witnessed significant improvement in Morrison as a hitter.

"He was a contact guy. He ended up leading off his last two years with us. He was super at getting on-base. He didn't strike out a lot. He developed some juice as he got older. He would drive balls to the gap a little more," said Robinson. "He was a very impressive bat-to-ball guy."

Heading into Morrison’s pivotal Grade 11 season, COVID struck and his team wasn't allowed to go to the U.S. This restricted the number of college recruiters and pro scouts that could see him play.

"I didn't have any offers from American schools coming out of high school," said Morrison, who attended Stratford District Secondary School. "I wasn't looking JUCO because I did have very good grades and what I thought I wanted to do was go into Engineering."

So, with his passion for baseball still burning deep, he elected to go to the University of Waterloo where he was accepted into their Computer Engineering program.

Ben Norris, head coach of the Waterloo Warriors baseball team, says Morrison pitched and played second base in his first year. After that season, however, Morrison switched his educational focus.

"I quickly found out that I wasn't as passionate about Engineering as I thought," said Morrison. "And trying to do 60 hours of schoolwork on top of baseball was a lot more challenging than I thought it would be."

Evan Morrison was a standout infielder with the OUA’s Waterloo Warriors before moving on to the U.S. college ranks. Photo: Waterloo Warriors

After playing for the Western Canadian Baseball League's Fort McMurray Giants in the summer of 2022, Morrison transferred to the Recreation and Sports Business program at Waterloo for his second year. This allowed him to spend more time on baseball.

"The biggest advantage of going to Waterloo was that I got to play right away and that helped me a lot self-confidence-wise," said Morrison. "We had great facilities there that helped me get better, and I just pushed myself."

Norris says Morrison hit second in the Warriors' lineup and they moved him to shortstop in his sophomore year.

"He was a very good contact hitter," recalled Norris. "And you could not find someone with a higher work ethic when it came to baseball. That guy loved being in the cage."

After Morrison completed his second year at Waterloo University, Dan Corbin, the GM of the Waterloo (Iowa) Bucks of the Northwoods League (a summer collegiate circuit), called Norris looking for pitchers for the second half of the season. Norris recommended Morrison and the young right-hander jumped at the opportunity to head south. He pitched well with the Bucks and made a good impression on his pitching coach, Mack Stephenson, who doubled as the pitching coach for McPherson College (NAIA) in McPherson, Kan.

Morrison returned to the University of Waterloo and batted .566 while topping the OUA with 30 hits in the fall of 2023 before transferring to McPherson College for the spring semester.

Morrison started as a pitcher at McPherson but evolved into a star second baseman who ended up leading the team with a .432 batting average.

Following that season, he returned to the Waterloo Bucks for the summer.

"And that's where things really started to take off," said Morrison.

While in summer ball, he was offered the opportunity to play for Grand Valley State University, a Div. II school in Allendale, Mich. He accepted and over the next two seasons he stopped pitching and developed into an All-American shortstop.

"I had never heard of Grand Valley until they gave me a call," said Morrison, "but facilities-wise, it's the best Division II school in the country. We got treated so well there as athletes. And Jordan Keur and Pete Romsek, the coaches there, were awesome . . . The culture they have built around the team is unbelievable. They just have such passion for the game that I learned so much from them in the two years I was there."

Evan Morrison was named Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Player of the Year this spring. Photo: Grand Valley State Athletics/Instagram

This spring, Morrison batted .410 with six home runs and 27 stolen bases in 58 games, while only striking out seven times. He also set Grand Valley State single-season records with 88 runs and six triples. For his efforts, he was named Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Player of the Year.

More importantly, some big league scouts were finally taking notice. Collias saw Morrison play twice - the second time was on May 9 against Davenport University in the conference tournament.

"That was the day when I said, 'OK, there's something to this guy,''' said Collias. "This is a guy you want on your team and you hate to play against. And he showed it all that day. He showed bat to ball where he could use the whole field. He showed power to the pull side. He hit a home run and that put me over the edge with him. He showed his speed. He showed good defensive ability and I was like 'OK, I'm writing this guy up.'"

Collias contacted Morrison the night before the second day of the draft. The Rangers had allocated almost all of their draft bonus pool money to their first three picks and were looking for cost-effective players on Day 2. Collias called Morrison to confirm that he wouldn't require a large bonus if they chose him and Morrison told him he just wanted a pro opportunity.

So, Morrison's draft call would come from the Rangers the next day in the middle of the Canadian Baseball League All-Star Game where he was representing the Chatham-Kent Barnstormers.

"In the bottom of the first inning, I'm sitting in the dugout and the phone starts ringing and I step out of the dugout and I take the call," said Morrison. "And then from there, it was a little bit of a blur. I told my parents [James and Christen, who were in the stands] to stay close by. And they saw me take the call and I went and gave them a hug. And I told them it was the Rangers. And then I went into the locker room to see the pick get announced on the screen."

And it’s been a whirlwind since that call.

Evan Morrison officially signed with the Texas Rangers a week after he was selected by them in the 10th round. Photo supplied.

On July 19, Morrison arrived at the Rangers’ development complex in Surprise, Ariz., and underwent a physical and officially signed with the club.

He is living in Rangers Village, a facility right across the street from the development complex and he now has more than a week's worth of practices under his belt.

At this point, he is uncertain what the Rangers' plan is for him for the rest of the season.

"I'm just trying to get better each day," said Morrison. "The path I've taken has definitely been unique. But being here for a week and competing with everyone, I can definitely compete here, which is pretty cool to see."

Collias believes Morrison can stick in pro baseball.

"Because A, he wants to be at the yard all the time. B, he's going to be consistent in mood and work ethic. C, he knows how to play and D, he can hit," said Collias. "He's that swiss army knife type of player, where you can play him all over. He's got that versatility and he can either hit at the top of the lineup or the bottom of the lineup."

Robinson also believes Morrison is capable of having a long career in pro baseball.

"I still believe in an analytical world that organizations and front office people are looking for people that help you win ballgames," said Robinson. "He does everything that the old school type player would do. Nothing will surprise me about him because he's such an easy kid to coach. He was a sponge. He understands the game so well. So, I think the ceiling is really high – maybe not based on having the best skillset or tools of anybody in the draft – but in terms of, this guy just knows the game in and out. And I believe there's still lots of room for players like that. And he'll probably play forever then get into a front office or a coaching position and spend his life in baseball."

Norris offers a similar assessment.

"I would never bet against Evan," he said. "Just looking at the way he has embraced every challenge, he's gotten better at every stop . . . If you told me that in three years, he was playing second base in a part-time role with Texas, I wouldn't be shocked at all. Then it wouldn't shock me if he worked his way into a starter's role."