Kendrys Morales Hits the Blue Jays’ Longest Home Run of the Year
I’ve learned two things about Kendrys Morales during his time thus far as a Toronto Blue Jay; he eats up mid-to-late 90’s fastballs and he spits them out with ferocity.
Of the 13 home runs hit by Morales this season, six of them are off pitches thrown at 95 miles per hour or above. Pitchers don’t have much luck throwing gas past Morales this season.
What’s even more impressive? When Morales gets a hold of one, he tends to send that ball into orbit, as demonstrated by the 465 foot bomb he crushed off Jake Odorizzi on Tuesday night.
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Safe to say Kendrys Morales got ALL of this one. pic.twitter.com/LgW8q59RlE
— MLB (@MLB) June 15, 2017
At 465 feet, it’s the furthest home run hit by a Blue Jay this season. 90 home runs hit by the Jays in 2017 and that one was the absolute longest.
Yes, even further than Josh Donaldson’s fifth deck moonshot from a few weeks back, which surprisingly “only” measured 435 feet.
[ Related: Can Kendrys Morales Step Out of the Shadow of Edwin Encarnacion? ]
If you look at the list of the furthest balls hit for home runs this season by Blue Jays hitters, lo and behold, there’s Morales’ name littered in the Top 10 list. He owns five of the furthest home runs hit by Blue Jays hit this season.
| Player | Game Date | Distance (FT) | Launch Speed (MPH) | Launch Angle |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kendrys Morales | 14-06-2017 | 465 | 109.1 | 24 |
| Russell Martin | 18-04-2017 | 449 | 106.5 | 27.423 |
| Kendrys Morales | 23-05-2017 | 447 | 110.5 | 20.772 |
| Kendrys Morales | 06-04-2017 | 444 | 108.8 | 26.118 |
| Kendrys Morales | 10-06-2017 | 439 | 112.6 | 20.812 |
| Ryan Goins | 08-05-2017 | 439 | 102.1 | 27.952 |
| Kevin Pillar | 24-05-2017 | 437 | 107 | 23.815 |
| Justin Smoak | 29-04-2017 | 437 | 102 | 32.736 |
| Josh Donaldson | 30-05-2017 | 435 | 109.3 | 30.615 |
| Kendrys Morales | 30-05-2017 | 434 | 111.3 | 23.683 |
Data via Baseball Savant
Is it surprising that Morales also owns five of the ten hardest hit home run balls by Blue Jays hitters this season? By now, we shouldn’t be shocked at how hard and how far Morales punishes the baseball on a consistent basis.
Maybe there was some credence to all the numbers cited in the offseason about Morales’ hard-hit rate, his exit velocity, barreled balls and how it would translate into success in Toronto. So far, it’s more of the same from Morales, now it’s only in a Blue Jays uniform.
