Kendrys Morales

[William Malone]

Kendrys Morales Rodríguez was born on June 20, 1983 in Cuba.

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim signed him as an amateur free agent in 2005. He made his Major League debut in 2006, but played sparingly for the next three seasons. Morales became the Angeles everyday first baseman in 2009, hitting 34 home runs and finishing fifth in AL MVP voting. An ankle fracture ended his 2010 campaign after just 51 games. He missed all of 2011 after the ankle initially didn't heal properly.

Morales hit 22 home runs in 2012, primarily serving as the Angels designated hitter. He was traded to the Seattle Mariners in the off-season, batting .277 with 23 home runs in his lone season with the Mariners. Seattle extended a qualifying offer to Morales when he became a free agent in the winter. He turned it down, but struggled to find a club willing to give up draft pick compensation in order to sign him.

Once the stipulations of his qualifying offer went away, the Minnesota Twins signed Morales on June 8, 2014. He made his Twins debut the next night, going 1-for-3 with a walk. Morales opened his season on a six game hitting streak, which included a three RBI game against the Toronto Blue Jays on June 11th. This hot start was followed up by an 0-for-21 streak at the plate, in which Morales drew only two walks. His first home run of the season came on June 24th against C.J. Wilson of the Angels. He finished June batting .215 with nine RBI over 20 games.

Morales had hits in 15 of 19 games for the Twins in July, but he wasn't drawing walks or hitting for power. Minnesota traded him back to Seattle for right handed reliever Stephen Pryor on July 24th. Morales had slashed .234/.259/.325 in 39 games for Minnesota, driving in 18 runs. His struggles continued in the second half, hitting just .207 in 59 games for the Mariners.

The Kansas City Royals signed Morales as a free agent. He drove in 106 runs during the 2015 season, which was fourth most in the American League. Morales won a Silver Slugger, and helped Kansas City win the World Series. He hit four home runs with ten RBI across 16 postseason games. Morales hit 30 home runs with 93 RBI for Kansas City in 2016.

He played two seasons for the Toronto Blue Jays, and split 2019 with the Oakland Athletics and New York Yankees.

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