BLUE JAYS’ NEW BIG BAT
It’s bombs away for Morales
DUNEDIN, FLA. Perhaps it’s just the sights and sounds of spring training after a long winter away from baseball that heighten the feeling.
Or maybe it’s the intrigue of his arrival with the Toronto Blue Jays and the uncertainty of just how much of the Edwin Encarnacion hole he will fill.
But you can say this about new Jays cleanup hitter Kendrys Morales: When his bat hits ball, you know it.
As unfair as the comparisons between the newest big Jays bat and the popular slugger he’s paid well to replace are, Morales knows what he’s walking into. He’s also confident he can hit for power and help an offence that last year slipped to fifth in the American League in runs scored return to the booming form of 2015.
“I don’t feel any pressure,” Morales said through an interpreter prior to Friday’s Grapefruit League meeting with the New York Yankees. “Edwin is a great hitter and a guy who hits for power and he did his job here. He did great here. Now it’s my turn to come out and do what I can do.
“I don’t think about that. I just think about doing my job and if it doesn’t go well, I’m just going to have to work harder.”
So far, Morales’ teammates have been quietly impressed with his approach. They see the talent and have had a sniff of power he brings. And they see a veteran player keen to subtly fit in with his latest major-league team.
Making his fourth spring training appearance here on Friday, Morales had a strikeout and was hit by a pitch before retiring for the afternoon. But in nine plate appearances so far, he has four hits — two for extras — including a home run.
With a second consecutive single-home run afternoon, the way Jose Bautista is hitting in front of him in the likely Jays batting order, there should be plenty of opportunities for Morales to cash in runs.
“I think his character and type of person he is walking around the clubhouse ... he draws respect,” Jays infielder Darwin Barney said of the early read on Morales. “He’s been around the game and baseball-wise he’s just one of those guys that he’s just got the gift ... he can hit.
“It hasn’t been that long. That’s just early impressions.”
The full evaluation on the 33-year-old native of Fomento, Cuba won’t have measurable relevance until a couple of months into the season. Already, however, there is reason for optimism that he’ll cover at least a chunk of the EE void.
The switch-hitting component Morales brings to the plate is a welcome bit of diversity for the Toronto offence. Then there’s the salivation of pounding the ball at hitter-friendly Rogers Centre and other sluggers’-paradise confines in the AL East.
While Morales will appreciate being sprung from Kansas City’s sprawling Kauffman Stadium, where he spent the previous two seasons, he isn’t falling into the trap of assuming a bump in his power numbers is automatic.
“You still have to hit the ball hard,” Morales said. “In any park that’s hitter friendly, you’ve still got to go out there and put the work in and hit the ball hard to have a good season. You can’t get too confident because you’re playing in the AL East.”
Without saying as much, it’s clear Morales has some unfinished business in his career. And if general manager Ross Atkins and the rest of the Blue Jays brain trust gambled correctly, he could be trending up.
The loudest season in his career came in 2009, a 34-home run campaign with the Angels. But when he fractured a bone in his lower left leg in a freak
accident after a home run celebration 51 games into the next season, fortunes turned for Morales.
He missed the rest of the 2010 season and all of 2011 and it took some time for the power to come around. A 30-homer effort last season was a formidable show of strength, however, and enough to earn him the three-year, US$33-million deal from the Jays.
“Of course it was really hard after I got hurt, not playing for two seasons, but I think I’ve been
pretty consistent since then,” Morales said. “I always just try to work hard every time I go out there.
“I feel great now. I feel comfortable. I feel confidence. And I think it’s going to go well.”
So far, so good, with the asterisk of it being early March. But there was another moment away from the field earlier this week that impressed manager John Gibbons. When the team played a road game in Bradenton — a trip light on veterans — Morales
didn’t utter a peep when his name was on the travel list.
“He’s really a professional hitter,” Gibbons said. “He’s not just out there slugging. I think that’s really going to help us out. He’s a student of the game. He’s always watching. He was more than happy to hop on a bus and go to Bradenton the other day. That’s kind of rare.
“There’s something different about him. He’s a baseball guy.”