It sure is nice having one of the very best backstops in the game.
Overview
- Rating: 7.46
- 2024 Stats: 97 G, 351 PA, .266/.353/.380, 105 OPS+, 2.6 bWAR, 2.5 fWAR
- Date of Birth: February 14, 2000 (age 24 season)
- 2024 Earnings: Pre-arbitration
- 2025 Status: Final pre-arbitration year
Review
There is a strong argument to be made that Gabriel Moreno is the most impactful position player on the team, over even the likes of the Corbin Carroll sparkplug or the Ketel Marte MVP-caliber season. The pitchers look more comfortable on the mound when throwing to him. Perhaps it is how he calls the game and receives pitches, rarely letting anything get by him. Perhaps it is the fact that having Moreno behind the plate means the pitchers need worry far less about base runners trying to swipe an extra 90 feet, as Moreno has spent the last two seasons proving himself as one of the very best at gunning down would-be base stealers. But in addition to being an ideal battery mate, Moreno also makes an impact at the plate. While not gifted with loads of home run power (the young man only has 13 career home runs in 2+ seasons), Moreno does make pitchers work to get him out. He has sports a robust .280 career batting average, though it was only .266 in 2024. He draws walks at a clip well above league average. He also strikes out far below league average. In short, about the only thing keeping him from being a complete, all-around threat is the lack of good speed on the bases. If not for how the Blue Jays wasted Moreno’s rookie season as a bench-warmer/injury backup, it is entirely possible that Moreno could have peeled a few votes away from Corbin Carroll in the 2023 ROY race, resulting in a non-unanimous decision. In short, Gabriel Moreno has already, despite his age (and partly because of it), as a truly special player.
With that understanding in mind, the Diamondbacks entered the 2024 season looking for Moreno to build on his previous success. He was the unquestioned primary catcher for the team. The hope was, that Moreno would get more support from the rest of the catching core, allowing him to not put in so many innings behind the plate. Moreno’s 2023 clearly demonstrated that Moreno needed more time to build up endurance and also needed to be able to take a day off here and there, something injuries simply did not allow him to do in 2023.
The first three months of the season were something of a mixed bag for Moreno. The young catcher struggled to find hits, especially those of the extra base variety. However, he still continued to work deep into counts and to continue drawing walks. This, combined with his excellent work as a battery mate, kept Moreno as the regular starter for the entirety of the first four months of the season. In July, once the summer really began to heat up, so did Moreno. The month of July saw Moreno elevate his batting average by 28 points. Furthermore, he started driving in runs again, making him a solid fit for the six, seven, and eight slots in the lineup. Some of the RBIs he racked up during this stretch were key knocks that propelled the team to victory.
Moreno’s resurgence at the plate continued into August. Then, on August 5th, this happened.
Marte and Moreno going back-to-back was seen as making a statement, punctuating why the Diamondbacks were leading the league in runs scored. But then, when Moreno came to the plate for his second at-bat of the game (in the second inning no less), this happened.
At first, it was hoped that Moreno would only miss a few days. Alas, it was not to be. Moreno wound up missing nearly six weeks, not returning until 15 September. In that span, the Diamondbacks went 21-14, not terrible, but the team actually lost ground in the standings. While the team still had some pop in the lineup, thanks to Adrian Del Castillo, the entire demeanour of the team seemed changed. Del Castillo’s early hot streak cooled quickly, which shortened the lineup. Neither Del Castillo nor Jose Herrera could do much of anything to control the running game. Simply put, the team just looked out of sort while Moreno was on the IL. After coming on as a pinch hitter for Herrera on 15 September, Moreno finally returned to working behind the plate the next night and caught 10 of the final 12 games of the season, during which time he played much like he did in July and August, before his injury.
2025 and Beyond
Short of Mike Hazen losing his mind and trading Gabriel Moreno away, fans should expect the young catcher to resume his duties as the team’s primary backstop. Furthermore, it should be expected that his workload will be adjusted with an eye towards keeping Moreno in the 100-110 game window. This will allow him to catch the overwhelming majority of games but will also work to keep him from being run into the ground again the way he was in 2023. As 2025 will be Moreno’s final season before entering arbitration, there is a very decent chance that the Diamondbacks will attempt to convince Moreno to sign an extension, helping the team with payroll cost certainty and also to help mitigate the massive jumps that can come from arbitration-mandated salaries. The bigger team question regarding catchers in 2025 is, who will be Moreno’s back-up?