Ramón Morla

Ramón Antonio Morla

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 1", Weight 205 lb.

• Born November 20, 1989 in Ramón Santana, San Pedro de Macorís D.R.

BR register page

Biographical Information

Ramón Morla was a home run leader in the low minors who later became a pitcher and appeared for the Dominican national team.

Morla was signed by Seattle Mariners scout Patrick Guerrero in 2006. In his pro debut, he hit .233/.364/.345 for the DSL Mariners and fielded .949 at 2B. In 2008, he batted .256/.399/.348 for the same club but fielded only .859 at third base. He came stateside in 2009 and kept on raising his average, though his OBP fell as he posted a .294/.345/.392 line, while he split his time mostly between short and third.

He had his best season with the 2010 Pulaski Mariners. He produced at a .323/.364/.610 clip with 17 homers, 49 RBI, 60 runs and 13 steals (only caught 4 times) in 62 games. Fielding remained an issue as he fielded .879 at the hot corner. He was among the Appalachian League leaders in numerous categories: 2nd in average (.052 behind Oswaldo Arcia), OBP (8th, between Dan Black and Greg Garcia), slugging (2nd, .062 behind Arcia), OPS (3rd, after Arcia and Marcus Nidiffer), runs (1st, 11 ahead of Garcia), hits (81, 2nd, 16 behind Arcia), doubles (17, tied for 5th), home runs (1st, 3 more than Arcia), RBI (2nd, 2 behind Arcia), total bases (153, 2nd to Arcia by 21) and steals (tied for 9th). His 21 errors tied Romulo Ruiz for the most by an Appy League third baseman. He was named the All-Star third baseman and was likely a serious MVP candidate, though that obviously went to Arcia. Baseball America rated him the #6 prospect in the league, between Delino DeShields Jr. and Mike Foltynewicz).

Battling a right thigh injury, he struggled in 2011 with the AZL Mariners (3 for 12, 2B), Everett AquaSox (.263/.332/.380 in 48 G) and Clinton LumberKings (.170/.196/.255 in 28 G) with 74 K in 297 AB. He improved his fielding to .915. He rebounded in '12 with Clinton at .278/.312/.473 with 27 doubles and 68 RBI, though he fielded .893 at third. He was 9th in the Midwest League in slugging, between Yeison Asencio and Todd Glaesmann and tied Daniel Paolini for 9th in the M's chain in two-baggers. His 34 errors did not lead MWL third basemen, though, as Miguel Sano had 42.

Morla fielded .922 at third between the 2013 Jackson Generals and High Desert Mavericks. He hit 18 homers and 29 doubles and drove in 74 between the stops, hitting .303/.351/.583 for High Desert and .244/.302/.431 for Jackson. He was 5th in the Seattle system in doubles, tied Ji-man Choi and Paolini for 4th in dingers and tied Jabari Blash for 6th in RBI. After a slow start with the '14 Generals (.200/.262/.284, 1 HR, 3 RBI in 26 G), he was moved to the mound.

He pitched five games for the 2014 AZL Mariners (Sv, 2.84, 8 K, 2 H in 6 1/3 IP). He split 2015 between the AZL Mariners (4 R in 6 IP) and the Bakersfield Blaze (1 R in 5 IP). He had Tommy John surgery to cut his season short. He was 2-3 with a 6.10 ERA in 22 games for the 2016 Blaze, with four shutout innings for the AZL M's. He was with the Toros del Este in 2016-2017 (2 R in 2 1/3 IP) and 2017-2018 (4 UER in 1 2/3 IP).

In 537 minor league games, he hit .266/.328/.441 with 294 runs and 265 RBI. He stole 63 bases in 92 tries and homered 59 times. He fielded .898 at third. On the mound, he was 2-4 with a save, 4.79 ERA, fanning 66 in 56 1/3 IP.

He pitched one game for the Dominicans in the 2019 Pan American Games. He relieved Ariel Peña in the 5th with a 1-0 deficit, one on and two outs against Cuba in the 5th/6th place game. He retired Yordan Manduley to end the inning. In the 6th, after the Dominicans tied it, he got both Yurisbel Gracial and Yordanis Samón. Stayler Hernández reached on an error but Morla retired Raúl González to end the inning. Ronny Agustín took over and the game remained 1-1 until the 10th, when each team exploded in what would be a 10-0 Dominican win.