Follow the Prospects: Yohandy Morales, 1B/3B

[imref]

Via Nats Player Development :

yohandy morales' last 18 games 🔥
.403/.457/.645
14 R, 25 H, 3 2B, 4 HR, 10 RBI

[JCA-CrystalCity]

With how bad the Nats first base d is, you might think that's another argument for giving Morales a shot

[HondoKillebrew]

He seemed like a good draft selection and have been pulling for him. It’s good to see him ascend and would be great if he pans out. 

[imref]

[welch]

Put him on the 40-man and bring him up!

[Smithian]

Every time I check in and pay attention to Morales, he collapses. Trying to stay arms length.

The sample size this early in the season is too small, but right now he is hitting how a 1B prospect should be hitting in AAA. I still question if his bat is good enough to be a 1B you're happy with, but I'm intrigued. I struggle to believe he can field 3B, but the current options are Vivas, House, and Tena, so maybe.

In the short term, the only thing holding him off of 1B is trying to increase Luis Garcia trade value ( ) and seeing if Mead can be something. I don't mind giving him another 100 ABs in AAA to see if he is figured out then calling him up. I do want to challenge him this season, because if he crashes and burns I think we have a couple outfielders who may be better with a first baseman glove in the long run.

[Elvir Ovcina]

Every time I check in and pay attention to Morales, he collapses. Trying to stay arms length.

The sample size this early in the season is too small, but right now he is hitting how a 1B prospect should be hitting in AAA. I still question if his bat is good enough to be a 1B you're happy with, but I'm intrigued. I struggle to believe he can field 3B, but the current options are Vivas, House, and Tena, so maybe.

In the short term, the only thing holding him off of 1B is trying to increase Luis Garcia trade value ( ) and seeing if Mead can be something. I don't mind giving him another 100 ABs in AAA to see if he is figured out then calling him up. I do want to challenge him this season, because if he crashes and burns I think we have a couple outfielders who may be better with a first baseman glove in the long run.

I've said this before (although keep in mind I've always been high on this guy), he is a potential plus defensive 1B in MLB.  He's huge with long arms and has good feet around the bag plus a 3B's ability on ground balls.  Other than maybe making him a lefty, you couldn't put together a much better body for a 1B. 

I'm of whatever school of people there is who cares more than the average bear about defense at 1B.  You can't have some sub-6-foot stone hands there and expect it not to cost you outs every damn night.  Morales would immediately be a huge upgrade just for that reason.

At 3B, he'd be a bit of a range concern, but he has a cannon so he can make up for a little bit by playing deeper.  How long he keeps even that amount of range is questionable to me, and relying on playing deep plus arm too much over moving your feet at 3B is always going to lead to more errors from longer throws.

There is no such thing as "Luis Garcia trade value." He's getting paid $7 million-ish and shouldn't even be in the majors.

[blue911]

One of my favorite defensive stats for first basemen is assist to second. For the lack of anything better it gives an idea of how effective they are at erasing the lead runner.

Keith Hernandez had 393 in his career spanning 2000 games
Ryan Zimmerman had 32 in 525 games.


Defense is the easiest,cheapest way to improve.

[imref]

2nd straight game with a HR. Not sure what else he can do.

[imref]

3-4, 2-2B tonight.

[Slateman]

Are we really married to Tena at DH? Like, I would love to plug in Morales at 1B and make Garcia a platoon DH. Or maybe send House down for a bit.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Thing is, Tena has hit well. I don't know if you want to try him in the field more.

[imref]

2 HRs tonight.

[HondoKillebrew]

2 HRs tonight.

Great to see this guy get it together. Hope to see him in DC soon.

[zimm_da_kid]

Great to see this guy get it together. Hope to see him in DC soon.

with how bad house has been, might as well let Yoyo ride at 3rd and call ortiz up for 1B. They're not top prospects so let's let them sink or swim

[JCA-CrystalCity]

The thinking I guess is they want to let House work things out in the majors and they don't project Morales to be the long term 3rd baseman. Morales would have to be added to the 40 man, so for now it would mean dropping someone they thought was worthy of a slot previously. Chaparro is a righty, so that's a likely candidate. 

As for 1st, Ortiz is coming off a  bit of an injury. Spiked his leg and sat for a bit more  than a week, so he probably needs a week or so to get back to forcing any issue. On the MLB club, Garcia has started to hit and his fielding is sort of neutral at 1st. Much better than 1st impression, so I think they are willing to ride with him as long as this is a near-.500 club. Mead looks bad at 1st, but  he's also learning the position, and, as last night showed, his ability to play 2nd and 3rd is valuable. Vivas / Tena complicates things, but Tena's hitting and Vivas fields the best of the backup infielders. You probably need to deal one of Garcia / Mead / Tena / Vivas to open things up for Ortiz or Morales.

[imref]

The thinking I guess is they want to let House work things out in the majors and they don't project Morales to be the long term 3rd baseman. Morales would have to be added to the 40 man, so for now it would mean dropping someone they thought was worthy of a slot previously. Chaparro is a righty, so that's a likely candidate. 

As for 1st, Ortiz is coming off a  bit of an injury. Spiked his leg and sat for a bit more  than a week, so he probably needs a week or so to get back to forcing any issue. On the MLB club, Garcia has started to hit and his fielding is sort of neutral at 1st. Much better than 1st impression, so I think they are willing to ride with him as long as this is a near-.500 club. Mead looks bad at 1st, but  he's also learning the position, and, as last night showed, his ability to play 2nd and 3rd is valuable. Vivas / Tena complicates things, but Tena's hitting and Vivas fields the best of the backup infielders. You probably need to deal one of Garcia / Mead / Tena / Vivas to open things up for Ortiz or Morales.

Saw something a few days ago that whenever Toboni mentions the core of the team going forward, he mentions Wood, Lile, Abrams, and Cavalli, but not House. There's some speculation that they don't see House as a future regular. And he certainly has seen a lot of time on the bench in favor of Vivas.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Well, the 1st 3 position guys have done more in the majors than House. No premature coronation

[blue911]

The thinking I guess is they want to let House work things out in the majors and they don't project Morales to be the long term 3rd baseman. Morales would have to be added to the 40 man, so for now it would mean dropping someone they thought was worthy of a slot previously. Chaparro is a righty, so that's a likely candidate. 

They aren’t hurting for offense.
House’s (Hice?) offense has shown some improvement over last season. Not enough for me but not enough to warrant a demotion that would cost another player their spot.

[welch]

Let YoYo play more 1B, maybe platooning with Ortiz, and playing 3B when not at 1B. Chappy is excess.

Of course, as long as Garcia hits, the Nats don't need another 1B.

[imref]

Really would rather see him than Mead at this point: 2-4 2B, 2R, BB, SB, and 2 Ks, 1.043 OPS after tonight.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

12:40    
willl: Eric, you were one of the highest on Yohandy Morales at the time of his drafting in 2023, but you’ve soured on him significantly since then, to the point he didn’t even make the Nationals’ top 41 prospects. He’s now sporting a 170 wRC+ in AAA (as well as a career 130wRC+). Anything about his season so far give you pause to reconsider his non-prospect status?

12:43    
Eric A Longenhagen: right right 1B only defender with no launch, 30-grade contact rate against fastballs. Late a lot of the time. Fringe guy.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/eric-longenhagen-prospects-chat-5-15-2026/

[zimm_da_kid]

2-2 with a 2B and a walk today.

Up to .362/.451/.616 on the year with 9 bombs and a 40/20 k/bb ratio in 41 games and 138 AB.

Longenhagen must be right in his assessment of the underlying metrics or else he'd be in the big leagues right now. At the same time, Brady House is noticeably subpar at both offense and defense so might as well have them swap MLB and AAA 3B jobs for a bit and see what happens.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Longenhagen must be right in his assessment of the underlying metrics or else he'd be in the big leagues right now. At the same time, Brady House is noticeably subpar at both offense and defense so might as well have them swap MLB and AAA 3B jobs for a bit and see what happens.

In another chat, he's  acknowledged that the team think both Yoyo and Wallace are major leaguers.

Reading his reply above, it seems to come down to his belief that Morales can't play 3rd and a preference for lefty fielders and hitters unless they have tremendous hitting abilities. No launch and a hole that can be exploited. That said, if he can field adequately at 3rd, I'm not sure that purported hole makes him more vulnerable to MLB pitching than what House has shown.

Maybe the right thing is to give House a longer run, then give Morales his chance, then Wallace or perhaps Fitz-Gerald. However, I completely get that there a 40 man roster position squeeze right now so deferring adding Morales may make sense.

[Squab]

I can see what Longenhagen was saying about not being great against fastballs.
https://prospectsavant.com/player/691002

Ortiz is actually similar here. It's different when you look at other top prospects.

(these tables are all indented wrong sorry i am lazy). but .164 xBA in 2025, .237 in 2026 with xSLG under .350.

Seems to be a much better sinker/slider hitter.


2026

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Pitch Type Usage xwOBA xSLG xBA Whiff% HardHit% Swing% Velo
4-Seam 29.9% .344 .343 .237 25.93 59.09 45.5 93.7
Slider 19% .357 .461 .290 34.62 54.55 46.0 84.3
Sinker 16.4% .519 .751 .398 27.91 70.59 43.9 93.1
Sweeper 9.7% .298 .426 .217 26.47 28.57 58.6 81.7
Change 8.7% .201 .148 .132 29.63 28.57 51.9 82.8
Cutter 7.2% .380 .566 .267 28.57 33.33 48.8 86.9
Curve 5.7% .279 .236 .209 38.89 80.00 52.9 79.5
Splitter 3.2% .664 1.039 .467 50.00 100.00 42.1 83.3

2025

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Pitch Type Performance
Pitch Type Usage xwOBA xSLG xBA Whiff% HardHit% Swing% Velo
4-Seam 25.1% .282 .278 .164 44.23 65.63 49.5 93.6
Slider 21.1% .294 .372 .228 38.46 50.79 51.4 84.7
Sinker 16.3% .384 .513 .293 17.14 60.00 51.3 92.7
Sweeper 10.3% .206 .219 .146 42.86 25.93 48.6 82.1
Cutter 9.1% .427 .663 .312 29.49 41.67 51.0 88.3
Change 8.4% .258 .330 .197 45.83 48.00 51.4 84.7
Curve 6.7% .262 .369 .187 26.67 27.27 40.2 78.7
Splitter 1.9% .184 .157 .145 38.89 60.00 56.3 84.5
Slurve 0.9% .691 .000 .000 50.00 0.00 26.7 79.0