Michael Morales wears the rose of youth upon him. The 22 year old “Moose” wears his hair shaggy and brings a soothing consistency to the mound that translated into a career-best season between High-A Everett and Double-A Arkansas in 2024. Now, the major leagues are within striking distance, and the best zone controller in the high minors at his age is hoping to work his way into the rotation consideration.
As Kate wrote last summer, Morales was drafted and signed away from a Vanderbilt commitment by $1.5 million with the 83rd overall pick of the 2021 draft. In no small part, Morales likely saw Seattle’s selection as an opportunity to reach the majors sooner. In that regard, he’s been holding up his end of the bargain. The 6’2 righty has eclipsed 100 innings in every season as a pro save for his draft year, no mean feat in an era where pitchers are typically protected heavily at every developmental stage. After leading the Low-A Modesto Nuts in innings in 2022, he repeated the level, only reaching High-A Everett this past year after improvements to his repertoire made it clear his ability to miss bats was headed in the right direction.
Last year, only veteran Triple-A Tacoma stalwart Casey Lawrence threw more innings in the minors for Seattle than Morales’ 149.0, as he mustered an encouraging 3.02/3.46/3.59 ERA/FIP/xFIP, and a 90 DRA- at the Double-A level. The most glittering variation of Morales looks like the clip below, dotting four-seamers with decent rise, multiple breaking balls diving off the plate, and an improving changeup that hopefully is an increasingly major part of his repertoire as it flashes plus.
It’s been a little while since Seattle has had this sort of prospect bloom, but it was, in Jerry Dipoto’s early days, the predominant profile. Max Povse, Andrew Moore, Rob Whalen, Sam Gaviglio, Marco Gonzales. Pitchers whose fastballs might have elicited an eyebrow raise 30 years ago but now are merely clearing the threshold for entry. Occasionally, one of those players becomes Gonzales (who notably was the lone southpaw of the group), while the rest struggled to find purchase along with many other command merchants every year. The line between lasting success and stalling out is prosciutto thin, and Morales’ efforts to beef up his physicality haven’t yet borne fruit on the radar gun.
Morales is 90-94 typically with his four-seam, but he places it wherever he so chooses alongside a two-seamer. The same is true of a few breaking balls, most potently a curveball with significant multi-plane break. He’ll also peddle a sweeping slider and a gyro variant – a pitch that spins with slider movement but finds its deception in subverting hitters’ expectations and predominantly diving vertically in lieu of the visually expected sweep. Both pitches can be solid, but have to well-placed because of the aforementioned charcuterie-level difference between a good slider and featuring on someone else’s highlight mix when you’re living in the 80s to low-90s on all your offerings.
The player, by both lettuce and lean, repeatable delivery that Morales most evokes among recent M’s farmhands is his potential 2025 teammate, RHP Taylor Dollard. Both pitchers were less regarded than their contemporaries at times due to lesser high-end stuff, but have compiled results. Dollard’s missed significant time, but Morales is in position to offer Seattle something they’ve not had since the early and mid-2010s: young, high minors pitching depth. Whether you prefer either of the previous two pitchers in these rankings (LHP Brandyn Garcia and RHP Logan Evans), Dollard, or former top pick Emerson Hancock, the M’s are fortunate to have a handful of young starters who can provide big-league quality depth in the imminent and near future.
For Morales personally, it comes down to what more he can reasonably unlock in himself. In the outings where he got hit around, Morales was not horrific. He was simply imprecise, getting to two strikes often but then failing to force batters to bite. Any uptick on his velocity and/or stuff more broadly, however, would combine for a pitcher with all the command and repeatability to be a rotation arm in the majors. His game is good enough to still be a big leaguer as a nibbler, but if he’s going to stick as a starter for good, he’s going to need to find just a little more bite.