Next up on our list is an outfielder.
Name: Nick Morabito
Position: OF
Born: 5/07/2003
Height: 5’10”
Weight: 185 lbs.
Bats/Throws: R/R
Acquired: 2022 MLB Draft, 2nd Round (Gonzaga College High School, Washington, DC).
2024 Stats: 24 G, 78 AB, .397/.530/.513, 31 H, 2 2B, 2 3B, 1 HR, 18 BB, 18 K, 11/15 SB, .508 BABIP (Single-A) / 95 G, 377 AB, .294/.373/.374, 111 H, 15 2B, 3 3B, 3 HR, 42 BB, 80 K, 48/59 SB, .366 BABIP (High-A)
Nick Morabito comes from a baseball family. His father, Brian Morabito, played baseball for James Madison University when he attended the school in the late-80s and early-90s and his uncle, John, played baseball at Wake Forest University and was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in 1987, spending a year in their minor league system. Brothers Nick and John instilled in their children a love of baseball.
Nick took to the sport like a fish to water, playing little league in his native McLean and eventually going off to Washington D.C., attending high school at Gonzaga College High School, a private Catholic college-prep school. Morabito was not highly scouted as recently as his junior year but shot up draft boards this spring after having a monster senior year for the Eagles, helping lead them to the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference and D.C. State Athletic Association titles. Winning Washington D.C. Gatorade Player of the Year honors, he hit .545 with 10 doubles, 6 triples, 12 home runs, 52 stolen bases.
The Mets selected Morabito with their second round pick in the 2023 MLB Draft, the 75th player selected overall. He had a commitment to Virginia Tech but forwent it after the Mets offered him a cool million dollars, roughly $125,000 over the MLB-recommended slot value of $873,300. He was assigned the GCL Mets and appeared in 6 games, hitting .091/.167/.136 with 0 home runs, 1 stolen base, and 2 walks to 14 strikeouts. He returned to the FCL Mets when their 2023 season began and hit .324/.437/.432 in 30 games with 5 doubles, 2 triples, 1 home run, 11 steals, and 20 walks to 22 strikeouts. The 20-year-old was promoted to the St. Lucie Mets in August and finished the season with them, hitting .286/.403/.378 in 27 games with 4 doubles, 1 triple, 1 home run, 10 stolen bases, and 14 walks to 27 strikeouts. All in all, he hit .306/.421/.407 in 57 games combines, with 9 doubles, 3 triples, 2 home runs, 21 stolen bases in 25 attempts, and 34 walks to 49 strikeouts.
Morabito remained in St. Lucie to start the 2024 season, and what a start it was. The 21-year-old center fielder appeared in 24 games for the St. Lucie Mets and hit an impressive .397/.530/.513 with 2 doubles, 2 triples, 1 home run, 11 stolen bases in 15 attempts, and 18 walks to 18 strikeouts. He was promoted to the Brooklyn Cyclones in early May and remained in Coney Island for the rest of the season. While Morabito did slow down, it was more a case of being unable to maintain such a torrid pace rather than looking overmatched. In 95 games, he hit .294/.373/.374 with 15 doubles, 3 triples, 3 home runs, 48 stolen bases in 59 attempts, and 42 walks to 80 strikeouts, sitting the Cyclones single-season franchise record for hits (110) and stolen bases. At both Single- and High-A combined, he hit .312/.403/.398 on the year, with 17 doubles, 5 triples, 4 home runs, 59 stolen bases in 74 attempts, and 60 walks to 98 strikeouts, earning him Organizational Player of the Year 2024 honors.
Among all full-season minor league players, Morabito ranked 7th in stolen bases and 13th among qualifiers in batting average. Among all qualified Mets minor leaguers, he led the system in batting average, on-base percentage, and stolen bases. Morabito became the first Mets minor leaguer to hit .300 with at least 50 stolen bases since the late, great Brian Cole, who accomplished the feat in both twice, in 1999 and 2000.
The 5’11”, 185-pound Morabito is built like a football player, think and solid, yet athletic. He stands square at the plate, holding his hands high at his head and angling his bat head at 1:00. His right-handed stroke is quick and direct to the ball with very little wasted movement, as his load and launch are virtually non-existent.
While Morabito has posted solid exit velocities, averaging 90.7 MPH while playing with the St. Lucie Mets in 2024 with a highwater mark of 102.1 MPH, he hamstrings himself by pounding the ball on the ground. He posted a 63.5% groundball rate with the St. Lucie Mets in 2024 and a 53.3% rate with the Brooklyn Cyclones. Those numbers are not a fluke, as he posted a 43.7% groundball rate in 2023 with the FCL Mets and a 53.5% rate with St. Lucie. With St. Lucie, he went to the opposite field more than he pulled pitches, shooting the ball to the opposite field and letting his plus speed leg outs hits. Since his promotion to Brooklyn, he has been pulling the ball more, and going forward, he will need to pull the ball more and put it in the air more, as relying on his speed to scratch out hits is not a particularly viable strategy, nor are empty average hitters particularly valued in today’s baseball landscape.
Over the course of his career thus far, he has had solid success against fastballs, breaking balls, and off-speed pitches. Overall, Morabito has had slightly more success making contact and putting the ball in play against secondary pitches than he has against heaters, but the majority of his extra base hits have come on fastballs. He has shown burgeoning platoon splits, hitting .331/.420/.410 with 50 walks and 74 strikeouts in 440 plate appearances against right-handed pitchers and .221/.318/.338 with 10 walks and 24 strikeouts in 88 plate appearances against left-handed pitchers.
A shortstop in high school, Morabito was drafted as an outfielder and has not played anywhere in the infield save a handful of games where he manned second base in 2023. With below-average arm strength, Morabito was never expected to remain at short. Thanks to his plus speed, he has above-average range and is beginning to come into his own as a center fielder. With roughly 1,000 professional innings in center, he is taking to the position well and should continue to improve, with virtually all feedback on his progress being overwhelmingly positive.
2025 Mets Top 25 Prospect List
20) Dom Hamel
21) Jacob Reimer
22) Will Watson
23) Daiverson Gutierrez
24) Ronald Hernandez
25) Edward Lantigua