Kendrys Morales had a terrific spring training, hitting .354/.392/.563 and we were starting to think he was a smart pickup.
And then he had a terrible April (being fair most of the Jays had a terrible April), putting up a .667 OPS. May was better, .930 and then June was back to poor .731.
In total, Kendrys is hitting .252/.300/.454 for a 96 wRC+. Not the numbers you want to see from your DH. Compared to last year, his walk rate is down (5.9% down from 7.8) and his strikeout rate is up (22.9% up from 19.4).
Watching him, what bugs me is that it seems that he decides to swing before the pitch is thrown. Often he swings at the first pitch of an at bat no matter what it is. It could be a foot off the strike zone and he’ll still swing.
And it seems to happen, sometimes, with two strikes too. Almost like he’s just hoping the ball and bat will intersect without doing anything to improve the odds it will happen.
Now sometimes Morales has good at bats, but I expected that every at bat would be a good at bat. A guy that only hits, you would think, would have a plan going into each at bat.
He’s played a few games at first base and has looked better than I expected. And yeah he’s extremely slow. We knew that going in.
Poll
For the first half, I’d give Kendrys Morales an
This poll is closed
-
0%
A
-
2%
B+
-
10%
B
-
17%
B-
-
18%
C+
-
17%
C
-
14%
C-
-
7%
D+
-
5%
D
-
1%
D-
-
3%
F