Rays prospect Morgan's grand success owes a lot to his LSU origins

MESA, Ariz. – Tre' Morgan wanted the heater.

His Mesa Solar Sox had faced the Scottsdale Scorpions already on Oct. 9, the date of Morgan’s first four-hit game of the Arizona Fall League. Their pitchers had thrown the Rays’ No. 10 prospect early fastballs then, so Morgan knew what to seek when he stepped into the box with the bases loaded in the bottom of the fourth inning at Sloan Park on Tuesday.

First pitch, fastball, down and in.

The LSU version may have handled it one way.

“I’d say I maybe would have fouled it off, fouled it going back,” said the left-handed slugger, who already had a third-inning double on his resume.

The Tampa Bay version of Morgan -- an admittedly stronger one capable of holding up not only over a full regular season but a Fall League one too -- hit the ball much more squarely. The result: a grand slam that came 102.5 mph off the bat and landed 381 feet away on the right-center berm beyond the fence.

Morgan picked up two more hits – a two-run double the opposite way in the sixth and a single in the eighth – to give himself another four-knock performance in the AFL, this time in a 15-2 victory. Through five Solar Sox games, the 22-year-old is 10-for-24 (.417) with one homer, one triple and four doubles.

It may be too early to get too wrapped up in Fall League statistics, but the early performance underlines Morgan’s evolution as a hitter both in college and the pros.

Start with what’s becoming a signature look across the Arizona desert.

Morgan was certainly an accomplished hitter during his days with LSU, hitting .333 over his three years on campus and finishing with more walks (56) than strikeouts (51) in his Tigers career. But the 2023 Draft (he went to Tampa Bay in the third round) necessitated a switch from metal bats to wood, so Morgan turned to Marucci -- a Baton Rouge, La.-based company -- for help. The answer that was perfect for his game: a hockey puck-style knob like one sported by Joey Votto in recent years.

“They didn’t have any balanced [metal] bats that Marucci was giving at the time, so I choked up way more than I choke up now to get that balanced feel,” he said. “I don’t have to choke up as much with the puck.”

Morgan employs another strategy that should catch the eye of any AFL evaluator or fan: a two-strike stance. The 22-year-old widens his base when facing a potential K and eliminates the leg kick, keeping his front leg more planted in the ground. In Tuesday’s laugher, Morgan used the stance to his advantage on his second double when he worked a full count against Pirates righty Derek Diamond and slapped an outside fastball to left-center for his fifth and sixth RBIs of the night.

“I’ve been doing it since [LSU coach] Jay Johnson taught it to me my sophomore year, and that’s worked for me,” Morgan said. “I really got it from my teammate Tommy White, and we’ve been working on it ever since.”

Morgan carried his hate for strikeouts into pro ball during his first full season. Through Aug. 18, he sported a .354 average, 10.4 percent walk rate and only a 9.0 percent K rate over 79 games between Single-A Charleston and High-A Bowling Green. He debuted for Double-A Montgomery two days later, but the results went south – .211 average, 18.7 percent K rate in 21 games. It was an eye-opening experience and one Morgan intended to correct when he found out he was headed to the Arizona Fall League.

“You don’t get too many pitches down the middle in Double-A,” he said. “They flirt with the corners a little bit, and if you’re up there trying to hit everything, you’re not going to hit anything. That’s what I had to learn.”

Morgan’s AFL assignment is a clear sign the Rays value him as part of their prospect core, and his move from first base to left field this fall (away from a potential competition with second-ranked Rays prospect Xavier Isaac) proves the organization wants his bat in the lineup everyday somewhere.

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Perhaps it’s no coincidence that the LSU Morgan and the Rays' Morgan was at the heart of superteams – one loaded with Paul Skenes, MLB's No. 1 prospect Dylan Crews and other 2023 national champions, the other stocked with Isaac, Carson Williams (TB No. 1), Chandler Simpson (No. 4) and other future faces of the next Tampa Bay contender.

“Dylan taught me not to have peaks and valleys, depending on how you play,” Morgan said. “Be the same person every single day you walk out there. I appreciate him for that. That really made me a better baseball player. And Carson, he told me it gets real in Double-A, and I felt that a little bit going through -- I wouldn't even say slumps -- through some of the struggles.

“It's just staying positive, loving showing up to the field every day."