Arizona Catcher Moreno Has Turned The Postseason Into His Playground

Precocious Arizona catcher Gabriel Moreno has turned the major league baseball postseason into a coming out party. Moreno is the fourth catcher in major league history to have four home runs in the playoffs, and at 23 is the youngest.

While the mid-market Diamondbacks may not have seen that production coming as quickly when they acquired Moreno and outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. from Toronto for outfielder Daulton Varsho in the offseason, Moreno’s rise has validated the trade that was made for one purpose — to find a long-term answer behind the plate on both sides of the ball.

“Gabby has taken extraordinary strides this season,” said Diamondbacks general manager Mike Hazen, who orchestrated the Dec. 23 deal. “It’s fairly rare to see a young player, specifically someone that young at that position, come along as quickly as he has. And we’re not here without either one of those guys.”

Moreno has done more than hit. He is one of three NL Gold Glove candidates at his position after throwing out 38.6 percent of baserunners attempting to steal in the regular season, a major-league best. His 3.1 defensive WAR was more than one win better than No. 2 Connor Wong, and he flashed his arm in the seventh inning in the Diamondbacks’ 5-1 victory in Game 6 of the NLCS with a strong throw to second base to nail Kyle Schwarber attempting to advance to second on a short wild pitch.

But it is his bat that created the most postseason buzz, as did Arizona manager Torey Lovullo’s decision to move Moreno up in the order. Moreno spent 81 games hitting seventh or eighth this season and never had hit fifth until Lovullo inserted him there for Game 1 of the NL wild card series at Milwaukee.

Moreno then spent the first seven playoff games at No. 5, hitting three homers, before being moved up again to the three hole for Game 3 of the NLCS as the Diamondbacks returned home facing a 2-0 hole against the Phillies.

“There’s some patience to the at-bat,” Lovullo said of the move. “He drives the pitch count. It gives (Walker, No. 4 hitter Christian) the freedom to fire early in the at-bat. Walker is very unpredictable with what his approach will be and what his plan will be, but I think Gabby can be there to kind of complement him.

“He has had some really consistent at-bats, and I wanted to push guys up that were going to be able to compliment one another. It’s just a matter of pushing up the guys that will get the most at-bats during the course of the game, and I just like that combination.”

To say it worked is a credit to Lovullo’s anaylsis and Moreno’s execution, and it showed up almost immediately. Moreno hit a bases-empty homer off former Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes for a 4-3 lead in a 6-3 victory over Milwaukee in the Game 1 of a two-game sweep in the NLDS, a preview.

Moreno drove a 419-foot, three-run homer into the left field pavilion at Dodger Stadium off Clayton Kershaw to start a six-run first inning in Game 1 of the NLDS, sparking a rally that effectively ended Arizona’s 11-2 victory 10 minutes after it began.

Moreno hit a 420-footer — the fourth homer in a four-homer third inning — when the Diamondbacks eliminated the Dodgers 4-2 in Game 3, and that at-bat seemed to perfectly illustrate his approach. The pitch before, Moreno hit a fly ball on a 93 mph fastball that cleared the fence along the right field line. Originally ruled a homer, the call was correctly overturned on video replay. Moreno hit an 82 mph slider deep into the seats in left-center field on the next pitch.

“That’s what I always been taught — try to hit middle, opposite field,” said Moreno, who is playing for a $722,500 on a second-year contract. “That is my strength. Confident in my hands.”

Teammate Joe Mantiply remembers that Game 3 at-bat.

“He hits the home run foul and the next pitch to be able to turn on one and hit another homer, that’s something only the best players in the world can do,” Mantiply said. “That takes an unbelievable amount of talent and slow heartbeat to be able to execute in that moment. That’s probably the coolest thing I’ve ever seen on a field, to be honest.”

It has not been all homers. Moreno served a single into left-center field to cap a three-run eighth inning rally for a 6-5 victory over the Phillies in Game 4, pulling the series even after Alex Thomas’ two-run pinch-hit homer off Craig Kimbrel tied the game at 5.

“You dream of these moments, honestly,” Moreno said.

Moreno hit his fourth postseason homer in the fourth inning Saturday, breaking a scoreless tie and kick-starting the Diamondbacks to 9-1 victory over Texas to even the World Series at one game apiece. Moreno is one homer short of Sandy Alomar Jr.’s postseason record five, hit in 18 games for Cleveland in 1997.

“The strides I’ve seen Gabby have from the beginning of the season to where we are now is incredible,” Diamondbacks right-hander Merrill Kelly said. “I’ve said it multiple times in the last couple of weeks that I can’t wait until I’m 50 years old and I’m watching Gabby Moreno still playing in the big leagues. I think he’s that type of talent, that type of mentality.”

Kelly turned 36 on Oct. 14, two days after Moreno’s foul/fair homer daily double.

“For as young as he is he’s not scared of the moment,” Kelly said. “He’s not scared of anything that I’ve really seen.”