It's No Longer Possible to Ignore What Coby Morales is Doing

Bridgewater, New Jersey – Coby Morales has largely flown under the radar over the first three seasons of his career. No mainstream prospect hype. No headlines. Just a JUCO transfer turned 18th round draft selection determined to work his way up the organizational ladder.

He carries himself with quiet confidence. He doesn’t care much for the prospect lists, and he most certainly doesn’t pay attention to the scuttlebutt about his play from outside pundits. Those are the very things that fuel him – the ingredients to the proverbial chip he carries. After 34 games in the heart of the Somerset lineup this season, Morales has rapidly emerged as an ascending power prospect in the Yankees organization. The numbers are becoming extremely difficult to ignore.

“I feel like I do [play with a chip] a little bit,” Morales said. “Even if I were on a prospect list, I feel like I would still play with the same chip on my shoulder. I haven't crossed the checkboxes of where I want to be yet, and I know that I feel like I'm taking the right steps to get to be where I want to be.”

With 138 games in the Double-A regular season, Morales noted playing with a chip on his shoulder is essential during the long pro ball season.

“If you don't keep that same competitive edge, then I feel like you lose yourself as a player and you play down more,” he said. “Playing with the chip on the shoulder definitely helps me play to the best of my ability.”

After hitting seven home runs and posting a .643 OPS in 116 games in 2025, Morales was determined to go to work this winter in order to make more meaningful contact.

The prevalent term thrown around in today’s game is “swing decision.” The scope of it is broad, but Morales knew that he needed to not necessarily offer at pitches less often but to offer at ones that he could impact with significance.

Morales needed just 29 games to exceed his home run total from a year ago and entered action against Binghamton this week with a .941 OPS – the fourth-best mark in the Yankees system among qualified full-season players.

“It was definitely not so much mechanical,” Morales said. “It was definitely a lot more swinging at pitches in the zone. That was kind of one of my problems my last two years of pro ball. I’m definitely just swinging at more pitches in the zone. I feel like if I just hit the ball, it's going to come off hard – that was one of the main things.

Morales also said he worked to lower his miss-in-zone percentage, trying to barrel the baseball as consistently as possible.

In 2025, Morales’ swing percentage was 48% and this season it is at a near identical clip of 48.7%. He made contact 72.3% of the time last season and that number is at 72.1% in 2026. Those numbers tell you that Morales is swinging the bat just as frequently as he did last season while making contact at the same rate. What has changed is what he is doing when he is impacting the ball – the quality of his contact has vastly improved.

ISO, or isolated power, measures a hitter’s raw power by focusing solely on their ability to hit for extra bases. You arrive at this number by subtracting a player’s batting average from their slugging percentage and any number above the .250 mark is considered in the elite class. Morales has raised that mark by more than double this season to .267, which ranks sixth-best in the Yankees system for all full-season players, after posting a mark of just .112 in 2025.

“I always knew that it [the power] was there, for sure,” Morales said. “Coming into pro ball I knew there was definitely going to be some learning curves and everything. I feel like with all the hard work I've done and getting with the hitting department here and with the Yankees, they do a really good job of developing hitters. I'm just trusting the process and taking it day by day. Just putting a good swing on the ball and hoping for the best.”

Coby Morales is the @MiLB Eastern League Player of the Week for games played 4/20-4/26🏅 pic.twitter.com/qtl2wTlFxH

— Somerset Patriots (@SOMPatriots) April 27, 2026

Morales, who was named Eastern League Player of the Week back on April 27, has never wavered on his ability and neither have the Yankees. While folks in and around baseball are just catching on to what the 24-year-old slugger is capable of, it was the Yankees scouting the Downey, California-native as far back as 2021 when he was earning First Team Orange Empire Conference honors while at Cypress College.

It was a Yankees scout that first handed him a business card in those early JUCO days before he transferred to the University of Washington to face much stiffer Pac-12 competition. And it was the Yankees that ultimately showed the upmost faith in Morales by selecting him in the 2023 MLB Draft. While the pick was late and the signing bonus was small, the path to the Bronx was clear.

In his third full season of pro ball, Morales is seemingly fulfilling the promise that the Yankees bet on. He entered the week second in the system in runs scored (28) and third in hits (34) and RBI (26), while his eight homers ranked seventh and his .583 slugging percentage ranked eighth. It is the culmination of a lot of hard work and belief that he belongs.

The hot start to the regular season for Morales feels like a culmination that began with a strong showing in the decorated Arizona Fall League and carried over into the Yankees annual Spring Breakout Game during Spring Training just prior to the start of the regular season. Morales posted a .938 OPS with seven RBI in eight games for Mesa in the AFL this past offseason before driving home two runs on three hits while batting cleanup in the Spring Breakout prospect showcase.

Morales said he’s aware of his growth over the last year. Being in the Arizona Fall League around talented prospects from other organizations showed him how everyone goes about their business. It also gave him extra confidence, reminding him he’s also a prospect that belongs.

“From last year to this year, that definitely helped me change my mentality to remind me that I am good enough to be here,” Morales said. “Like, you're a good player already. It's just up to me to hone in on that.”

While much of the discourse surrounding Morales will be about his offensive prowess, the Patriots primary first baseman is much more than that. He has the ability to play in the outfield where he has 782.2 innings of experience in pro ball, mostly in the corner spots. Positional versatility is a tool that Morales knows could ultimately give him a plethora of different roles as he continues to climb closer to the bigs.

“I've always said that I feel like I can play any position on the diamond,” Morales said. “Wherever they need me, they can put me. In playing first, there's definitely still some kinks I want to work out, but other than that I definitely love playing every position. I recommend it for anybody who is coming up and playing baseball to play as many positions as you can because you never know where you might find your home to be.

While there are surely bigger name prospects in the Yankees system and even on the Somerset roster for that matter, Morales continues to turn persistence into production. A kid with a small school pedigree that grew up rooting for Andre Ethier and his hometown Dodgers, continues to post numbers on the back of his baseball card that become harder to overlook with each passing game on the schedule.

Aware of the importance of staying even keeled amid the ups and downs of a baseball season, Morales said it helps knowing how much he’s accomplished this year. However, he’s also aware there’s a lot more baseball to come and is committed to the hard work and mindset to get there.

“Every time I walk on the field, I try to think that I'm the best player on the field,” Morales said. “No matter if it's Game 1 or Game 7 of the World Series, I'm trying to keep the same mentality.”

Matt Kardos | SomersetPatriots.com Senior Writer

Matt Kardos has covered the Yankees minor league system for over a decade and will spend his 14th season on the beat covering the Patriots for SomersetPatriots.com. Throughout his career, Matt has contributed to MLB.com, YES Network and Pinstriped Prospects. When he’s not at the ballpark, Matt enjoys traveling with his wife Kimberly, watching Jets football and collecting sports cards.