CATCHING ON QUICK

Emerging young catchers Gabriel Moreno and Francisco Alvarez were gaining helium in prospect circles for their immense offensive upside

- JOSH NORRIS

Prospect analysis often requires making predictions about an unpredictable game and its unpredictable players. That sense of the unknown is one reason why break-out prospects intrigue us so much.

Every year, a player who entered the season as a relative unknown ends up dominating as soon as the first pitch is thrown on Opening Day.

The Nationals’ Juan Soto was that way in 2018, when he returned from a series of injuries in the prior season to rip through Low-A, High-A and Double-A in just 39 games on the way to big league stardom.

This year, Blue Jays catcher Gabriel Moreno stands as one of the biggest breakouts in baseball. Through 32 games at Double-A, he hit .373/.441/.651 with eight home runs. He drew 14 walks against 22 strikeouts.

But to those who got to watch the 21-year-old Venezuelan in 2020, this isn’t an opening act. It’s an encore performance.

Blue Jays minor league hitting coordinator Hunter Mense puts it this way: “I talked to some reporters before the season and their first question was: ‘Is there anybody we’re missing or anybody that might be a little bit too low?’ and my answer was always emphatically Gabriel Moreno.

“What everybody missed out on last year was just seeing some of the strides that guys made and, for him, improving some of the strength that he had.

“He was already one of my favorites in the organization because of what he can do offensively, but then you fast-forward a year and—and nobody got to see him—and it was like, ‘Yeah he’s the absolute real deal.’ ”