Seattle Mainers: Pitching Prospect Michael Morales Has Untapped Potential
Looking at the Seattle Mariners pitching prospect, Michael Morales there are some interesting aspects of his game. As a 3rd-round pick in the 2021 Draft, Seattle went over slot to select Morales and take him away from his commitment to Vanderbilt. The Mariners (who’ve had no fear of developing pitchers), saw the advanced makeup of Morales. There was a belief Morales was the most advanced high school arm in the draft (not the best stuff, just most polished).
With that kind of belief in Morales, Seattle undoubtedly wants him to become a frontline starter. While Morales is a fine prospect, I have a hard time establishing his ceiling (and floor). On the one hand, he’s got exceptional breaking balls and off-speed offerings (all of which could be his best pitches). His fastball seems to be a bit less of a wipeout pitch. While we’ve seen pitchers have success before with secondary offerings being the primary pitches, I’m not sure Morales has the proper decision-making to maintain a lengthy MLB career.
Morales has a lot of the same issues high school pitchers have. He’s not a marksman at finding the strike zone and he’s prone to mental lapses. However, as said before, he’s a polished pitcher with a mature mindset. Morales has a good feel for his breaking balls. He knows when to throw the secondary stuff. While his changeup wasn’t located terribly effective when I saw him, it was used a lot more effectively than his fastball and is a better pitch.
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With a solid offering of secondary pitches, Morales seems to have less of a belief in his fastball. He’s not afraid to throw it, however, he’s afraid to elevate. I was left waiting for Morales to throw a fastball high during a troublesome inning against Inland Empire. He did throw an assortment of pitches but never caught any batter off guard with a heater located up. Eventually, Morales did find that zone and struck out a batter with ease.
That’s my problem with Morales. He’s polished and has a good pitch assortment with good break and velocity, but putting the pitches in the right spot will be his biggest hurdle. You need to fool the hitter. Every player on Inland Empire knew he wasn’t going to throw the heater upstairs, and when that pitch was thrown down the middle (even the change to an extent), they smacked it. It’s telling when the one high heater he threw was immediately taken for a swing and miss.
The Seattle Mariners have a knack for finding pitchers with amazing off-speed and breaking pitches (George Kirby, Matt Brash). Seattle knows how to handle the type of pitcher Morales is. I’m optimistic about his future. We can’t call him a top prospect yet, however, it is not out of the realm of possibility he becomes one.
Image Source Sean Simmers |ssimmers@pennlive.com
Daniel is a guru of baseball and basketball prospects. He’s a very experienced Amusement Park traveler as well. Follow him and his hot takes on Insta @dgentleman9288
