The Mets Are Calling Up Christopher Morel Because Why Not
Fans on X predicted the move back in June when he signed his minor league deal.
The New York Mets are officially selecting Christopher Morel to the major league roster, a move that proves the front office is willing to try absolutely anything to bridge the gap until Mark Vientos gets his cast off.
According to MLB Trade Rumors, the Mets are calling up the 27-year-old utility man after stashing him in Triple-A Syracuse since late June. If you are wondering why a guy with his raw power was available for the price of a minor-league flyer, you just have to look at his brief, disastrous stint in Miami earlier this year.
Morel played 22 games for the Miami Marlins this season before an oblique strain and a subsequent release ended the experiment. During that stretch, he slashed a brutal .162/.219/.206 and struck out in 38.4 percent of his plate appearances. For context, if you walked up to the plate with your eyes closed and just swung as hard as you could, you might accidentally make contact more often than that.
His career 65.6 percent contact rate ranks dead last among the 200 major league hitters with at least 1,500 plate appearances since his 2022 debut. He is the ultimate true-outcome player, except the outcome is usually a breeze felt in the first three rows behind the dugout.
But the Mets are not doing this because they think they fixed him. They are doing this out of necessity. Vientos has been out since July 10 with a fractured right hand, and while he recently started hitting off a tee, New York needs warm bodies right now. They just wrapped up a sweep of the Washington Nationals and are staring down a series against the San Diego Padres.
The upside is that Morel still possesses the same 99th-percentile bat speed that helped him hit 26 home runs with an .821 OPS for the Chicago Cubs back in 2023. If he connects, the ball goes a very long way.
Expect Morel to get immediate at-bats starting tonight against San Diego. If you are looking at the betting board, his strikeout props are about to become the most entertaining sweat in baseball. He will either hit a ball into the upper deck or strike out three times on nine pitches, and the Mets are desperate enough to live with either result.