Trayce Thompson
Week: 6 G, 22 AB, 9 H, 1 2B, 0 3B, 6 HR, 2 BB, 6 K, 2/2 SB (Triple-A)
2024 Season: 41 G, 145 G, .248/.329/.572, 8 2B, 0 3B, 13 HR, 19 BB, 39 K, 5/6 SB, .240 BABIP (Triple-A)
A Los Angeles native, Trayce Thompson attended Santa Margarita Catholic High School in Rancho Santa Margarita, California and then committed to the University of California, Los Angeles after graduating. He ended up never playing for the Bruins, as he was selected by the Chicago White Sox in the second round of the 2009 MLB Draft and signed with them. A power-over-hit outfielder, he slowly climbed the White Sox minor league ladder, eventually becoming a top prospect in the Chicago minor league system. In 2015, he was promoted to the majors and appeared in 44 games for them, hitting .295/.363/.533 in his cup-of-coffee with 8 doubles, 3 triples, and 5 home runs. That December, he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a three-way trade between the White Sox, Dodgers, and Cincinnati Reds.
He made the Dodgers’ 2016 opening day roster and appeared in 80 games but was placed on the disabled list in July due to a sore back that eventually turned out to be spinal fractures, and had his season end prematurely. He returned in 2017 and struggled, bouncing up and down from Triple-A to the majors, a trend that continues to this day.
Kade Morris
Week: 1 G (1 GS), 7.0 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 6 K (Single-A)
2024 Season: 7 G (6 GS), 34.2 IP, 34 H, 17 R, 14 ER (3.63 ERA), 11 BB, 38 K, .304 BABIP (Single-A)
A high school senior who went undrafted in the COVID-abbreviated 2020 MLB Draft, Kade Morris attended the University of Nevada, where he walked onto the baseball team as a relief pitcher. He appeared in 18 games for the Wolf Pack in his freshman year, posting a 7.71 ERA in 25.2 innings, allowing 34 hits, walking 13, and striking out 15. In his sophom*ore year in 2022, he appeared in 18 games, making 4 starts, and posted a 4.32 ERA in 66.2 innings, allowing 68 hits, walking 22, and striking out 53. That summer, he pitched for the Cotuit Kettleers of the Cape Cod Baseball League and was extremely successful, making four starts and posting a 1.08 ERA in 16.2 innings with 11 hits allowed, 6 walks, and 9 strikeouts.
He thought about transferring from Nevada for his junior season, entering the transfer portal and committing to Texas Christian University where former Nevada head coach TJ Bruce had been hired, but ultimately did not, returning to Nevada for his junior season. Transitioned from the bullpen to the Wolf Pack rotation as their Friday night starter, the right-hander started 14 games and logged a career-high 81.1 innings to modest success, posting a 5.42 ERA with 96 hits allowed, 27 walks, and 85 strikeouts. With their third-round compensation selection in the 2023 draft for their failure to sign Brandon Sproat in 2022, the 101st overall pick, the Mets selected Morris. He signed for $666,500, the MLB-recommended slot bonus, and made a single appearance in 2023, beginning his professional career in earnest in 2024.
Morris throws from a low-three-quarters arm slot and has a simple, repeatable delivery that utilizes a leg lift. The right-hander has a deep arsenal, including a four-seam fastball, two-seam fastball, slider, curveball, and changeup. Both fastballs sit in the low-to-mid-90s, averaging 93 MPH and topping out in the mid-to-high-90s. He has used the four-seamer a bit more than the two-seamer so far this season, with 31.6% and 22.7% usage percentages, respectively. His four-seamer is generally used higher in the zone, resulting in more swings-and-misses, and his sinker is generally used lower in the zone, resulting in more ground balls.
None of his secondary pitches have elite swing-and-miss, but Morris is effective with them by changing eye levels, mixing his wide arsenal, and getting batters to get themselves out or make weak contact. He goes to his slider the most, a low-to-mid-80s offering that has generated the majority of his strikeouts thus far this season. Batters have been putting it in play a lot this season, but have not really been able to put good wood on it, with a .290 batting average with a .458 BABIP but a .395 SLG and .105 ISO.
His mid-70s curveball and mid-to-high-80s changeup have been thrown 9.6% and 5.3% of the time, respectively, making them little more than chance-of-pace offerings. The curveball is a better pitch at this point in time; both pitches have resulted in more fly balls than anything else, but the curveball has resulted in weakly hit balls pulled in the air, while the changeup has resulted in more balls hit solidly.
