The Mets have signed outfielder and third baseman Christopher Morel to a minor league deal. He does not have to be placed on the 40-man roster and will be sent to the Mets Triple-A team in Syracuse.
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In his career Morel is a .220/.296/.407/.702 hitter with 74 home runs, 211 RBIs, and 32 stolen bases across 499 games. Morel debuted with the Cubs in 2022 at age 23 and hit the ground running. Across his first two seasons and 220 games, he slashed .241/.311/.471/.781.
He was traded midseason in 2024 and has struggled heavily since, slashing .202/.269/.335/.605 splitting time with the Rays and Marlins. This has been his worst season so far, slashing .162/.219/.206/.425 across 22 games in Miami.
Morel’s issues come from his struggles to make consistent contact. His 73% zone contact rate is 3rd percentile, and his 38.4% strikeout rate is in the 2nd percentile this year. He only walked 5.5% of the time (18th percentile) and ran a 34.8% whiff rate (7th percentile). When he was at his best with the Cubs, he had the same swing and miss, but was walking around a 9% clip.
Morel’s best trait is his power. In 2023 he ran a 91.9 miles per hour average exit velocity, 108.3 miles per hour 90% exit velocity, and maxed out at 113.6 miles per hour. This year his average exit velocity and max exit velocity are both right around league average, though his 107.2 miles per hour 90% exit velocity is in the 89th percentile showing that the power potential is still there. He also still pulls the ball in the air at an incredibly high rate.
Morel does still struggle against breaking balls but has improved against velocity this season. He is far less aggressive than he was earlier in his career, but this seems to be much more passiveness than patience since he is taking far more hittable pitches than before. He seems to have tried to trade some power for contact, but the contact gains have been minimal at best. It will be interesting to see if the Mets try to push him to be more aggressive in Syracuse, like he was when he first came up.
Defensively, he is much more of a designated hitter than fielder, especially as his sprint speed has continued to decline. He does have an incredible throwing arm so maybe the Mets can work on improving his positioning and read off the bat to make up for his poor range.
In the end, this is a minor league deal and if he comes up to the majors even as a short term fill in, he would have to clear waivers again. The Mets have two years of control over Morel after this season, but he would need to either clear waivers or be added to the 40-man roster for the Mets to maintain that control past 2026. It is very likely he never sees a game in the majors with the Mets, but he is at least interesting and young enough that it is worth seeing if he can make any adjustments in Triple-A.
