One of the Cubs best players is Christopher Morel. Morel was mentioned in trade talks this winter, although Jed Hoyer opted with keeping him on the roster. He debuted with the Cubs in 2022, and hit a towering home run to left field in his first career at-bat. One small thing I wanted to mention from this at bat is how there was clearly a lot of stress with it being his first appearance in front of the Wrigley Field crowd. Mid at-bat he called time and Willson Contreras told him to take a deep breath, which then proceeded the home run. You can often see him taking a deep breath before hitting, in order to calm himself and prepare for the at-bat. Not something super important, but a neat thing that Contreras helped Morel with that he’s continued to practice.
Morel is now focusing on third base defensively, as well as taking up the DH spot for Craig Counsell. His defense was a major issue last season, as well as to begin the 2024 campaign. Lately, he’s been able to do well defensively. Throwing errors were a problem, but he’s gained control and hasn’t had an error since April 3rd. His defense is officially passable, something that was a worry this offseason. Now that we know he can play defense, his offense can be evaluated without any distractions.
Christopher Morel is a very streaky hitter. He started the season off by hitting two home runs in the first five games. Entering Tuesday’s game, he has five home runs in his last eight games. When he starts to hit, Morel gets really hot really fast. The problem is that he also will get in a slump where he is giving you no positive production. However, I think that the positives outweigh the negatives, especially now that he is developing more of an eye for the strike zone.
When Morel was called up, a lot of people compared him to Javier Baez. One of Baez’s most noticeable traits was his awful plate discipline, and how he would swing at anything remotely near the strike zone. Morel was the same way in 2022, with a 32.2% K-rate. This was in the bottom 5% percentile wise, showing how bad it really was. His whiff rate was 38.3% in 2022, and 37% in 2023. Your first thought when reading this is that he may not be swinging as much, but that’s not really true. His swing rate has only decreased by 2.4% (50.1-47.7) since he debuted. The biggest increases we have seen are this season, with his plate discipline drastically improving. His K-rate has gone down by 10.5%, with his whiff rate going down by 8.5%. I struggling to believe this was random, as the numbers aren’t just changing by small margins. His walks have increased as well, especially as of late. Sunday’s game against the Brewers was a perfect example, with Morel going 1/1 with three walks and one single. Morel has had around a third of the at bats so far compared to 2023, and has already gotten 50% of his 2023 walks. He reached base via a base on balls 36 times in 2023, and just recorded his 18th walk on Monday night, 35 games into the season. For context,
His plate discipline has increased, we’ve been able to prove that fairly easily. Is he still producing the same offensively? In a way yes, but in another way no. One thing that is down from his past seasons is the batting average. It’s not down by too much, but there is a noticeable difference. Morel’s OPS is around his average, although it has decreased from last year. His wRC+ is basically the same, similar to his wOBA. He could work on raising his average, which will hopefully come over time. His expected batting average is .279, 57 points higher than his actual average. His expected slugging is 85 points higher than his current slugging, with his xwOBA 49 points higher than his current wOBA. These stats all prove that he is doing well, the hits just aren’t falling like they should be. He’s getting unlucky, as a lot of hitters do.
Another thing that Javier Baez was known for is how he got the crowd so excited, and was a fan favorite. One example was his play in Pittsburgh where he turned an easy groundout into a RBI double. Another one was his solo home run off of Johnny Cueto in the 2016 NLDS, which also happens to have one of my favorite home run calls of all time.
Everyone loved watching Baez, or “El Mago.” play for the Cubs. Every baseball fan loved watching him, and Baez jerseys were always flying off the shelves. This is exactly what Christopher Morel is, a fan favorite. There are so many examples of him getting along with fans, and waiting back to make sure they all got his autograph or a selfie with him. I have gotten a few selfies with him, as well as many autographs. One of the best moments so far was his walk-off home run against the White Sox, which will be a bobblehead given away at Wrigley Field later this season.
Morel can hit, he’s learning how to field, the fans LOVE him, and he LOVES the fans. This is why the Cubs should try and extend him now before he hits arbitration or free agency.
He still has a few years left before hitting free agency, but why let his value increase any more? We have seen his plate discipline develop, his defense improve, and his chance at becoming the face of the franchise increase year by year. His value will continue to go up as he continues to grow, meaning the likelihood of the Cubs retaining him gets lower. Teams are starting to extend their young stars more and more. We have seen this with players like Jackson Chourio, Bobby Witt Jr., Corbin Carroll, Ceddanne Rafaela, and Colt Keith. Sure there are times that it doesn’t work out, like with Scott Kingery. Kingery was extended before ever toughing a major league diamond, and now is stuck in the minor leagues after accruing 0.1 fWAR. However, so many other players have been extremely successful after getting signed at a young age. Take a look at the Atlanta Braves for example, who pretty much have their whole young core set for the next decade because of this. Ronald Acuna Jr. signed an eight year extension worth $100 million, and has since then become one of the faces of baseball, and lead them to a World Series Championship. The players can like these deals because it guarantees them money if they do fail, and the teams love it because if the risk pays off, they have a great player for really cheap.
The Cubs have a few young names that they excentended within the past few years, including Nico Hoerner and Ian Happ.
(Mention rizzo extention too)
Ivy League Cubs 
Leave a comment