Emil Morales, Los Angeles Dodgers, A, Rank: 10

Really take in the following words from Moonlight Graham in the movie Field of Dreams, “I would have liked to have had that chance. Just once. To stare down a big league pitcher. To stare him down, and just as he goes into his windup, wink.” Well fantasy baseball industry, I’m winking at you with this prospect spotlight. I’ve stepped up to the plate, given them a wink, and am awaiting their pitch. I’ve got you and the industry in your heads and off your game, “What claim is he about to make that warrants such a cocky back and forth dance?” Well, here it is, “In the debate between Luis Peña, Jesús Made, and Emil Morales, not only do I believe Morales is equal to Made, but they both are above Peña.” To get to this crazy thought, let’s start back at the beginning.

Morales signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers during the 2024 J15 international signing period. He signed for $1,897,500 out of the Dominican Republic, but was born in Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. He started his career that same year in the Dominican Summer League (DSL) and was one of the best players there. He had a slash line of .342/.478/.691, crushed a league-leading 14 home runs, added 11 doubles, and 12 stolen bases. His plate discipline was also at an elite tier level for the DSL, he had a 19.9% walk rate and a 22.4% strikeout rate. Some in the industry disagreed with this, pointing to his listed 46.9% contact for the season. However, this is where DSL stats are not to be relied upon at times, that number is generated by a strikeout being put in as three swings and misses, even if a batter struck out looking after fouling off 15 pitches. Those trying to label him as someone with contact issues would ultimately be proven wrong as the calendar turned to 2025.

Morales started the 2025 season in Rookie-ball at the Arizona Complex League and continued to mash. In 59 games, he had a slash line of .300/.383/.498, while adding nine home runs, 13 doubles, three triples, and stealing six bases. His plate discipline wasn’t nearly as perfect, he had a walk rate of 11.5% and a 28.3% strikeout rate. From there he was promoted to Single-A Rancho Cucamonga and exploded onto the full season scene. He would play in 30 more games there, end with a slash line of .339/.420/.548, add five home runs, 11 doubles, and five more stolen bases. His plate discipline even improved with a walk rate of 11.9% and a strikeout rate of 26.5%.

Looking a little deeper into Morales’ profile, you can start to see a hitter that has very good control of the bat. In 2025, he put the ball into the air more often than not and was above average at doing so with a groundball rate of 38.6%, which was good enough for 71st percentile. His line drive rate sat at 24.4% for the year, but was even higher at Single-A, 29.2%. While he was hitting the ball hard, his flyball rate wasn’t overly high, coming in at 37%. An encouraging sign was his home runs per flyball rate, which was 15.4% (84th percentile) in the complex; at Single-A it bumped up to 16.7%. While there, he showed a good ability to spray the ball to all fields as well and not just pull the ball hard. 59.8% of the balls he put into play wound up going to the opposite field or up the middle.

With all of this being said, a large amount of the industry labeled and continues to insist his swing and miss problems will hinder him. This is a mischaracterization of his play and something I will put to an end now. I have compiled a table of select top-tier prospects, their contact rates at Single-A, and some relevant stats. First, let’s take a look at this table somewhat blind and not see who the players are, just their stats.

From the above table, you can see that every one of the selected players had a contact rate between 70% and 80%, while swing rates were between 40% and 50% (with the exception of one at 38.2%). Even looking into the results, strikeout rates for all of the players fall between 17.5% and 23.5% with the exception of one at 13.3% (just a 6% range). The variance between the contact and strikeout rates of these select star prospects do not reflect labeling one with swing and miss issues when compared to the others. Now for the reveal…

You can see now, yes Morales does have the lowest contact rate among the selected star prospects, but only 3.5% below Konnor Griffin and his strikeout rate was only 0.2% below Griffin as well. You can also see Morales bested Griffin in batting average, OBP, and SLG. In fact, he had the highest of any of these players (note: sample sizes were different for all of the players).

Morales comes into the 2026 season ranked 10th and in the second tier for our shortstop consensus rankings, but for me he’s a tier one shortstop and a top 25 overall prospect. He has an elite ability to put damage on a baseball that even fellow top prospects just haven’t been able to do. As he matures, the power gap that exists between him and his peers at the top will continue to widen. The only thing really keeping him out of the top 10 overall will be his speed. Made and Peña have that extra tool in their arsenal, but Morales isvno slouch, stealing 11 bases and hitting three triples. It will be his bat that carries him on a throne to the major leagues and whether or not you can see it yet, it’s special. If he can bump up his contact rate at High-A and hopefully Double-A in 2026, there is no question he will be vaulting over prospects to secure a top tier ranking this time next offseason.