Gareth Morgan, OF, Seattle Mariners

Timed 4.40 and 4.44 up the line from the RHH box; 4.77 on the turn at first base.

Really grown into physically imposing frame; saw him two years ago in Bakersfield and he was a big, pudgy kid with baby fat; fast forward two years and he’s completely trimmed down into final form with great musculature and ample natural strength … Towering opposite field home run in my look; Lancaster-aided to a degree, but Morgan has big power with very strong hands and wrists, and ample leverage through his physical frame … The problem for him continues to be pitch recognition and plate discipline; swing is surprisingly fairly short and straight to the ball, but he’s highly susceptible to lunging out for off-speed and doesn’t appear to track spin very well at the plate. Going to produce tons of strikeouts until something changes; feast or famine guy who will hit for power but needs to be more selective at the plate, cut down on strikeouts, and draw some walks.

Even with ample power and ideal physical frame for a slugger, tough for me to see Gareth Morgan as more than an up-and-down guy at ceiling who’s far more likely to plateau into organizational depth. He’s still relatively raw at the plate with some development to come, but the recent and career strikeout rates are simply untenable and I don’t see much changing soon for the Seattle Mariners prospect. Fun guy to watch take BP, and maybe fun to dream on about what might be, but ultimately unlikely to provide big league value.

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