3 days agoMany baseball fans will remember Arizona Diamondbacks catcher Gabriel Moreno's playoff heroics in 2023 when he hit four home runs in just 70 plate appearances. Always an elite bat to ball hitter, unfortunately Moreno has never consistently accessed that kind of game power in the regular season (13 HR in 804 plate appearances). He hits a ton of grounders (52.7% career) and has never had an average launch angle above 8.8 degrees. That's the bad. The good: Moreno hits the ball fairly hard (90 MPH avg. EV, 41% hard hit), makes contact at elite rates (83.5% last year), does not chase (26.5%) or whiff much (6.8% SwStr%), and has great patience (11.7% walk rate). He's a career .280 hitter and has even sprinkled in a few steals at times. Moreno's also a great defender (+10 defensive runs saved last season), so he should get consistent at-bats. ATC projects him for a .277 average with nine homers and five steals over 452 PA. That makes Moreno a rare later-round pick that adds positive value to the batting average—even rarer coming from the catcher position. Moreno's hit tool and defense give him a solid floor for fantasy as a second catcher in rotisserie leagues. There is even some upside here if Moreno, still just 24 years old, can add some loft to his swing and access his power more often in games.--Michael Cecchini - RotoBaller