Detroit Tigers: Catching Prospects Lead to a Bright Future Or Do They?

Joey Morgan currently is the Detroit Tigers 27th top prospect, barely cracking the top thirty list. The real question is, what does Morgan have to offer for the Tigers future? Will he be a solid insurance plan in case Rogers does not work out.

Joey Morgan is currently stationed with the Tigers Single-A affiliate the Lakeland Flying Tigers. After being cut from Oregon due to poor recruiting, Morgan played his college ball for the University of Washington, where he became an even better defender but, vaulted himself to become the best hitter in the University of Washington lineup. The Tigers selected Morgan third round of the 2017 MLB Amateur Draft.

Currently, in 2019, Morgan has played in 12 games producing a .257 average, .366 on-base percentage, and .314 slugging percentage. Morgan was always known as a defensive catcher but more recently had been struggling in that aspect of the game.

He has thrown out only 3 of the 14 runners who have attempted to steal against him this year with Lakeland. According to the scouts, Morgan’s best quality will be his framing, and those stats are not currently available for him, but he was praised for being able to receive the ball well, including those pitchers who throw harder velocities.

Something to keep an eye on, when his time comes he can hopefully increase his hitting ability to be a capable player for the Tigers. Being that he is only in Lakeland with the Single-A club, it leaves him with time to improve his hitting, get his throwing under control, and continue to perfect his receiving ability to the standards of a big league catcher.

Morgan has a lot of room to improve, as of now, it does not seem that he is a viable option for the Detroit Tigers as insurance to Rogers. If Morgan can turn things around, his ceiling should rise which is the ideal outcome for the Tigers, but the reality is that he needs to improve on some things before that looks more likely.