Feb 15, 2017; Lake Buena Vista, FL, USA; Atlanta Braves catcher Kurt Suzuki (24) catches a ball during MLB spring training workouts at Champion Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 15, 2017; Lake Buena Vista, FL, USA; Atlanta Braves catcher Kurt Suzuki (24) catches a ball during MLB spring training workouts at Champion Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports /
Jonathan Morales established himself as arguably the top catching prospect in the Atlanta Braves system. What’s ahead in his 2017?
Player Profile
The Atlanta Braves drafted Jonathan Morales out of Miami-Dade College, Kendall Campus in the 25th round of the 2015 draft.
A native Puerto Rican, Morales was assigned to the Gulf Coast League affiliate by the Braves. In that assignment, he hit very well, going .304/.377/.511 with 7 home runs and 2 stolen bases, posting an identical 9.21% walk and strikeout rate.
After spending three games as a pinch hitter in the Caribbean Series for Puerto Rico, Morales jumped over advanced rookie Danville to low-A Rome in the South Atlantic League.
Morales benefited from the heavy defensive instruction in Rome, seeing monster defensive improvements on the season over some heavy questions with 11 passed balls in just 34 games behind the plate in 2015 to just 8 in nearly twice the games in 2016.
Morales opened the season splitting catching duties with fellow 2015 draftee Lucas Herbert, but as Herbert showed struggles on both the offensive and defensive end, Morales began starting 3-4 of every 5 days, tallying 113 games on the season, 64 of them at catcher.
Offensively, he had ups and downs, but he had a solid overall season at the plate in 2016. His overall line was .269/.313/.356 with 4 home runs and 3 stolen bases, also posting 25 doubles. Morales also posted a 5.4% walk rate and 11.9% strikeout rate.
In the postseason for Rome, Morales caught 7 games, finishing with a .306/.333/.423 line for the playoffs with a 1/3 BB/K line and 3 doubles.
Morales played quite a bit more in the Caribbean Series this winter, hitting .267 in 15 plate appearances. In the championship game, he drove in the winning run for Puerto Rico to win the series.
Morales is listed at 5’11” and 180 pounds, and while the 5’11 could be a bit generous, the 180 may be a bit on the “short” size, as Morales has a stout build that could probably go in the 200-210 range.
Hitting
Contact (50) – Morales is a right-handed hitter, and from his leg-heavy build, one may think Morales would have a big power swing, but it’s exactly the opposite.
Morales has a very simple load to his swing and a very quick bat into and through the zone. He has a more level path to the bat, and many took his high power output in rookie ball as a sign of big loft, but Morales tends to get a lot of ground balls and line drives.
His ground ball rate, in fact, was exactly the same his first year in rookie ball and in Rome, which is evidence of just the difference a bit of luck in a few balls getting out of the park vs. hitting the wall for a double does for perception.
Morales is prevented from getting a touch higher grade here in spite of his quick bat because he tends to make more contact than GOOD contact, and sometimes that leads to him swinging at the first pitch he can do something with rather than waiting for the best pitch of the at bat.
Power (45) – Due to not getting that barrel always on the ball the way one would like and his level swing path, Morales is more likely to be a guy routinely on the catcher leader board for doubles than home runs in his current approach.
He does have the natural strength and build that could allow him to tap into more of that power and bump this grade up to a 50-55, but I’d wager he’d severely hurt his ability to contribute offensively to access more power than that.
Eye (55) – While he does not draw a ton of walks, Morales had one of the better eyes at Rome last season. He has very good strike zone recognition and can keep his strike out rates low with a quick bat.
The thing that keeps me from tagging a plus grade on Morales is both that lower walk rate, but also struggling at times with pitch recognition in spite of having good judgement of the zone.
His bat speed allows him to make quick adjustments, but at times that means less than ideal contact, and better recognition of pitches out of the hand will allow him to step up the production at the plate, especially at the upper levels.
Base Running/Fielding
Speed (35) – Morales, like most catchers, frankly, won’t win many foot races among his teammates, but he does have tremendous instincts in his base running, which allows him to get all he can from his speed he does have.
He’s not a stolen base guy as he takes a few steps to get going, but he runs very smart on the bases on hits to the outfield when he’s on first, making good judgments on whether to move to third base from first, for instance.
Defense (55) – Morales is a converted third baseman that started behind the plate with the Atlanta Braves system, and you can see that in his reactions behind the plate at times.
He does get down and block very well, though lateral movement is still a work in progress, though a year ago I’d have called this a likely 45, so that says just how far he’s come in a year.
Morales has a reputation as a tremendous hard worker and very coach-able, so it would not surprise me at all to see this tick up to a true plus grade by the end of next season.
Arm (60) – This is where Morales truly shines behind the plate. While his footwork can sometimes get a bit sloppy, Morales’ arm allows him to make up for it frequently.
In 2016, Morales threw out a ridiculous 50% of those attempting to steal against him, and it wasn’t just guys running without abandon that led to his gaudy numbers.
His arm could be argued for a tick up in grade, even, but the footwork issue to access that arm strength is factored in here a bit, and that does have some work still to go, but like his other work behind the plate, he’s come a long, long way there as well.
MLB Player Comp
Interestingly, the guy who I believe is the best comparison to Morales is the guy the Braves signed this offseason, Kurt Suzuki.
Physically, they’re nearly identical as Suzuki is listed at 5’11” and 205 pounds. Suzuki did have more pedigree as an elite college catcher coming from Cal State-Fullerton.
However, they have quite a few similarities as Suzuki was well-known for his tremendous agility behind the plate and his contact skills at the plate with gap power, while Morales pairs a similar offensive profile with more of elite skills in shutting down the run game.
Suzuki was a guy who probably could have been one of the best of this generation before Oakland ran him into the ground from 2008-2011, playing him a total of 560 games over four years, an average of 140 per season. He also caught over 4,500 innings in that time at an average of roughly 1,145 innings per season.
After that four-year stretch, Suzuki was never the same guy at the plate or behind it. He hit .279 in 2008, and the wear and tear on his body had his batting average declining every season until 2014, when he had a bounce back year with Minnesota.
Like Morales, Suzuki is not a guy with a ton of home run power, being a guy with 11 home runs per 162 games in his career, but he’s also had 30 doubles per 162 games, something I can see Morales doing as well.
They also have similar positive plate approaches. Suzuki for his career has a 6.3% walk rate and an 11.7% strikeout rate. That compares quite favorably with Morales’ 5.4% walk rate and 11.9% strikeout rate in his first full season with Rome in 2016.
From all I’ve heard in my offseason talks, Morales has moved up significantly in the pecking order of Braves catching depth, and he’ll likely be placed somewhere where he can be the top catcher of the location and not have a shared time role.
The Braves typically like to set up 3 catchers at each minor league level, though sometimes those guys are like a Blake Lalli or Wigberto Nevarez, who are more first basemen who can also catch in a pinch. The team opens spring with the depth to have three solid true catchers at every full-season league, however, which would be very intriguing.
My personal bet is that Morales opens with high-A Florida, working both with the staff he developed such rapport with last season, but also working alongside excellent pitching coach Dennis Lewalyn, who does an excellent job in setting expectations of the catchers in the system in handling pitchers.
