Christopher Morel’s big-league career was born on a 3-2 pitch at Wrigley Field, with the crowd on its feet and a dugout full of Cubs clapping their hands and slapping railings in expectant rhythm, as if they knew what was coming.
It was Morel’s first at-bat, on May 17, 2022, with Pirates reliever Chase De Jong on the mound and the Cubs in front 6-0 in the eighth inning. De Jong’s sixth pitch was a fastball, middle-middle, and Morel turned it into the single most electric moment of a rebuilding season. As the ball screamed through the night toward its destination on Waveland Avenue, the 23-year-old Dominican utilityman flipped his bat and shuffled sideways up the first-base line, eventually making a 360-degree turn before missing the bag — rookie move — and having to double back to step on it. After his long, giddy, glorious round trip, Willson Contreras pushed him from the dugout to bask in a curtain call.
“Oh, my God!” he said then, incredulous.
Top that? Impossible.
But these, too, are heady times for Morel, who turns 24 on Saturday. In London with the Cubs, he’ll seek his 14th home run since being called back up on May 9 and his 25th of the season, including the gangbusters month-plus he spent at Triple-A Iowa. He already has become only the fourth Cubs player to homer 13 times in his first 31 games of a season, and since May 9 he has the third-most homers in baseball and the third-highest slugging percentage.
How extra-happy a birthday is it? How unimaginably fun must it all be?
“Out of 1 to 10?” he said in Pittsburgh before the Cubs finished off a sweep of the Pirates and boarded a London-bound flight. “I say 11.”
One way it might get even better is if Morel gets to join boyhood friend Julio Rodriguez over the All-Star break in Seattle. Rodriguez, one of the sport’s young superstars, will play in the All-Star Game, repping the Mariners in their own backyard. He also was, as of Friday evening, the first and only player on the official list of Home Run Derby participants. Could that be where Morel comes in?
It’s perhaps a long shot that Morel will get an invitation, but stranger Derby decisions have happened, and Morel’s teammates have been reveling in the thought of it.
“I think Morel could win it — I really do,” outfielder and first baseman Cody Bellinger said. “His power is unreal. MLB definitely should have him in it. He 100% should do it. He has unbelievable power.”
Bellinger, then a Dodger, was a Derby participant in 2017, losing to the Yankees’ Aaron Judge in a second-round matchup of that season’s eventual Rookie of the Year winners. Seiya Suzuki, a Cubs rookie along with Morel last season, participated in derbies in Japan.
“When I saw [Morel] for the first time, I was really surprised because he wasn’t the biggest guy but was hitting the ball out of the ballpark like it was nothing,” Suzuki said through a translator. “I 100% would love for him to do the Home Run Derby. I would love to see it.”
Speaking of Morel’s size, MLB still lists the once-lanky infielder/outfielder/DH at a not-so-strapping 145 pounds. Look it up if you don’t believe it. Even at PNC Park, Morel came up to bat against the Pirates and, sure enough, there it was in lights on the center-field video board: 145.
“I don’t know why that hasn’t changed,” he said.
OK, so it’s dated by merely eight years — it was Morel’s weight when he signed with the Cubs as an international free agent at 16 — and is a scant 55 pounds shy of the 200 at which he actually checks in. How many dingers does a dude have to hit before a silly error like this one gets fixed?
Not that Morel is hung up on it. Once upon a time, though, when they were 9 or 10, the scrawnier kid was Rodriguez, who these days is a 6-3, 230-pound Adonis. Rodriguez got a few more oohs and aahs then, and still does, but Morel could hit a ball every bit as far, and his own talent was formidable.
Morel would accept a Derby invite in a heartbeat, but he’s not eager to gush over something that hasn’t happened yet and, alas, probably won’t.
“We need to be in the present and, no matter what happens yesterday or in the future, [stay] in the present,” he said. “Be the same person. Be humble.”
That’s fine, but the rest of the Cubs aren’t necessarily complying.
“Seeing him in the Derby would be awesome,” manager David Ross said. “I’d love to put him on that stage. He’s got crazy pop.”
Morel does suspect his All-Star time is coming, if not this year with the Derby, then some other year soon, and actually playing in the Midsummer Classic, too.
“Yeah, sure, I believe I can do everything,” he said. “I just believe in myself and try to keep working hard, because every time you’re working hard, it’s to be [better]. . . . But I’m the type of person who likes to wait for my moment.”
