Nick Morabito
Week: 6 G, 21, 429/.539/.429, 9 H, 0 2B, 0 3B, 0 HR, 5 BB, 3 K, 5/6 SB (High-A)
2024 Season: 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) / 62 G, 254 AB, .287/.369/.354, 73 H, 9 2B, 1 3B, 2 HR, 30 BB, 55 K, 32/39 SB, .360 BABIP (High-A)
Nick Morabito continues hitting the ball. His 104 total hits, tied with Luisangel Acuna, lead the entire Mets minor league system, in fact. His .411 cumulative on-base percentage for the 2024 season is second in the system among non-complex players, behind only Syracuse’s Ben Gamel (.423). The only issue Morabito is displaying, and it was a known thing coming into the season, is his lack of power. With a .354 slugging percentage and a .067 ISO, Morabito is basically a singles hitter who is occasionally driving pitches for extra bases.
His batted ball data continues to be fairly abysmal. It has actually improved and gotten a bit more tenable since his first month in St. Lucie, but a 27.7% line drive rat, 53.9% groundball rate, and 18.3% flyball rate is extremely limiting. In St. Lucie, he was hitting the ball to the opposite field at exactly a 50% rate, going up the middle at a 21.7 rate and pulling the ball at a 28.3% rate. In his few months with Brooklyn, he has more-or-less reversed this, going to the opposite field at a 37.2% rate, going up the middle at a 16.1% rate, and pulling the ball at a 4.7% rate. Pulling the ball should be conducive to hitting for some additional power, but Morabito is hitting so many grounders and elevating so few pitches, making it harder for whatever pulled balls he does hit to land for extra bases.
Jonathan Pintaro
Week: 2 G (2 GS), 9.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K (High-A)
2024 Season: 9 G (7 GS), 36.0 IP, 28 H, 14 R, 10 ER (2.50 ERA), 14 BB, 35 K, .273 BABIP (Single-A)
Montevallo, Alabama native Jonathan Pintaro attended Montevallo High School and after graduating in 2016 attended Shorter University, a D2 school in the Gulf South Conference located in Rome, Georgia. After having a successful freshman season in 2017, posting a 2.63 ERA in 27.1 innings over 13 games, he injured himself and missed the entire 2018 season. He redshirted that year and then returned to Hawks in 2019. After going undrafted in his redshirt sophomore, redshirt junior, junior, or senior seasons, the right-hander ended up pitching for Shorter for five seasons in total. All in all, for the entire course of his collegiate career, he appeared in 72 games, starting 42 of them, and posted a cumulative 3.39 ERA in 305.1 innings, allowing 221 hits, walking 143, and striking out 410.
The 24-year-old remained in baseball after graduating, signing with the Glacier Range Riders of the Pioneer League in 2023. He appeared in 21 games, starting 14, and posted a 6.95 ERA in 90.2 innings, allowing 114 hits, walking 33, and striking out 86. He returned in 2024 and made three appearances, all starts, posting a 4.40 ERA in 14.0 innings, allowing 13 hits, walking 1, and striking out 23.
The Mets officially signed Pintaro to a minor league contract on June 3rd, but he received word that he was going to be signed the day prior, when he was on the mound pitching for the Glacier Range Riders against the Great Falls Voyagers (he pitched two scoreless innings that day, punching out three). The right-hander was assigned to the Brooklyn Cyclones and has been pitching in Coney Island ever since, and over 9 appearances with the club, seven of which were starts, he has a 2.25 ERA in 36.0 innings, allowing 28 hits, walking 14, and striking out 35.
The 6’3”, 235-pound right-hander has a big, durable frame capable of logging innings. According to Shorter head coach Wes Timmons, Pintaro regularly threw 100 pitches during games, sometimes even throwing 120+. He throws from a low-three-quarters arm slot with some crossfire, folding his top half down as he drops and drives off the mound and lowering his release point further. In some ways, his fluid, serpentine pitching mechanics are reminiscent of a right-handed Billy Wagner, sans the short arm action through the back and exaggerated leg kick.
Pintaro’s fastball sits in the low-to-mid-90s, topping out as high as 94.5 MPH as per MLB Draft League radar. With a spin rate measured as high as 2650 RPM, the pitch has tremendous carry and the right-hander is extremely effective with the pitch up in the zone. He complements the pitch with a slurve that has been measured as having spin rates around 3000 RPM and a changeup.
