Morel’s 2025 numbers with Tampa Bay were hard to ignore: a .219/.289/.396 slash line, 11 home runs, a 90 wRC+, and a staggering 35.7-percent strikeout rate, the highest in the American League among qualified hitters. Those struggles nearly pushed him out of MLB altogether. By his own admission, his most serious alternatives this winter weren’t other big-league clubs, but teams in Korea and Japan.
