Kendrys Morales finally contributes to Blue Jays, as a pitcher

Kendrys Morales acquitted himself well by pitching a scoreless inning against the Oakland Athletics, making one wonder if he should pitch full-time.

A lot hasn’t gone right for the Toronto Blue Jays, particularly in the month of May. Their 15-10 record in April looked good, if only because they went 8-17 in that same month last season. But that has since plummeted to a 6-13 record in May, which includes a four-game sweep at the hands of the Oakland Athletics.

No one person deserves the blame for the Blue Jays’ struggles, but Kendrys Morales’ lack of production has stuck out like a sore thumb. He was supposed to help replace Edwin Encarnacion’s production when the Jays signed him in the 2017 offseason and did fairly well in his first season when he hit 28 home runs and slashed .250/.308/.445.

This season has been an entirely different story, as Morales’ .150 batting average and -0.8 WAR has seen him look barely like an MLB player. He’s well below the Mendoza Line at this rate:

That’s why, in the midst of a blowout against the Athletics, manager John Gibbons went outside the box. Knowing full well Morales wasn’t going to hit his way out of his slump, he sent him out to the mound in the ninth. The result was a scoreless inning:

While we’re working with a small sample size, and his pitching mechanics do need to be tweaked, Morales has been far more useful as a pitcher this season than as a hitter. The starting rotation could certainly use some help, as J.A. Happ owns the team’s best ERA at 4.15. Their bullpen was a big reason the Blue Jays got off to a good start, but they’ve taken a nosedive since Roberto Osuna’s leave.

Morales isn’t the first position player to pitch a scoreless inning. Pablo Sandoval did the same for the San Francisco Giants in a similar blowout scenario against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Athletics have been one of the early surprises of the 2018 season after they were one of the worst teams in baseball last year. While getting shut out by a position player isn’t a good look, it wasn’t going to affect the result either way and it gave the crowd something to cheer about.

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At the same time as the Jays’ blowout loss, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. went 4-for-4 with a walkoff home run in double-A. His talents are getting wasted down there, and while he may not be ready for the majors yet, it’s hard to imagine he’d be any worse than Morales this season. It’s crazy to think that his greatest contribution has come on the mound, but that has been the state of the 2018 Blue Jays.