Gareth Morgan

Position: RF
Level: High A
Affiliate: Modesto Nuts
League: California League
Born: 04/12/1996 (Age: 27)
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 220
B/T: Right / Right
Acquired: 2nd Rd., 2014 MLB First-Year Player Draft (SEA)

Prospect Spotlight

Seattle signed Morgan for an over-slot $2 million bonus out of Blyth Academy (Toronto, CAN) in the 2014 Draft. He’s a boom-or-bust prospect with questions about his ability to make enough contact to bring his power into games. Physical and barrel-chested, he’s a good athlete for his size and profiles in an outfield corner. He drives mistake fastballs, doing extra-base damage with a steep uppercut swing. Even so, there aren’t many signs of being able to cut down the length of his swing when he needs to, and he struck out in over half the plate appearances I saw during my mid-April look. Morgan looked consistently exposed against spin and quality velocity up in the zone; he also leaked his front hip often, making it hard to stay on pitches to the outer-third of the plate. He is too big for centerfield, though he has enough arm to handle right.

A corner-only player with a bottom-scale hit tool, it’s tough to see an impactful future at the big league level. The best-case ceiling is the shortside of a platoon or as a power bat off a National League bench. Realistically, Morgan’s ability to make contact gets exposed in the high minors, and he settles in as a player who provides depth off the 40-man roster.