Nick Morabito’s father and uncle both played baseball, his father, Brian, at James Madison University in the late-80s and early 90s and his uncle, John, at Wake Forest University and then the Chicago White Sox minor league system in the late-80s. With their genetics and coaching, Nick took to baseball as well, playing little league in and around Fairfax County in Virginia and Washington D.C., and then eventually attending Gonzaga College High School, a private Catholic college-prep school in D.C. Initially, he was not on many radars, but by the end of his junior year, the outfielder had turned himself into a follow for scouts and evaluators. In 2022, he hit.545 for the Eagles with 10 doubles, 6 triples, 12 home runs, and 52 stolen bases, helping lead them to the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference and win the D.C. State Athletic Association title. Morabito won the Gatorade Player of the Year Award (Washington D.C.) and truly established himself as a bona fide high school prospect ahead of the 2022 MLB Draft.
With the 75th overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft, obtained as compensation for Noah Syndergaard signing with the Los Angeles Angels, the Mets selected Nick Morabito. He already had a commitment to Virginia Tech but decided to forgo it after the Mets offered him a $1 million signing bonus, roughly $125,000 over the MLB-recommended slot value of $873,300. The organization assigned the speedy outfielder to the FCL Mets for the remainder of the season and the 19-year-old went 1-22 in his first taste of professional ball.
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His poor performance at the end of the 2022 season, coupled with less-than-enthusiastic reports over the winter led many to question why the team had gone overlot to sign him, but Morabito flipped the script when he returned to the field for the 2023 season and began the year hitting .324/.437/.432 in 30 games in the complex, with 5 doubles, 2 triples, 1 home run, 11 steals, and 20 walks to 22 strikeouts. He was promoted to Single-A St. Lucie in August and finished the season with them, hitting .286/.403/.378 in 27 games with 4 doubles, 1 triple, 1 home run, 10 stolen bases, and 14 walks to 27 strikeouts. All in all, the 20-year-old hit .306/.421/.407 in 57 games combined, with 9 doubles, 3 triples, 2 home runs, 21 stolen bases in 25 attempts, and drew 34 walks to 49 strikeouts, just missing the 2024 Amazin’ Avenue Top 25 Mets Prospects list, garnering one 26th place vote.
Morabito remained in St. Lucie to start the 2024 season, and what a start it was. The 21-year-old center fielder appeared in 24 games for the St. Lucie Mets and hit an impressive .397/.530/.513 with 2 doubles, 2 triples, 1 home run, 11 stolen bases in 15 attempts, and 18 walks to 18 strikeouts, forcing a promotion to High-A Brooklyn in early May. He stayed in Coney Island for the rest of the season, and while he did slow down a bit, it was more a case of being unable to maintain such a torrid pace rather than looking overmatched. In 95 games, he hit .294/.373/.374 with 15 doubles, 3 triples, 3 home runs, 48 stolen bases in 59 attempts, and 42 walks to 80 strikeouts, setting the Cyclones single-season franchise record for hits (110) and stolen bases. On the season, he hit a combined .312/.403/.398, with 17 doubles, 5 triples, 4 home runs, 59 stolen bases in 74 attempts, and drew 60 walks to 98 strikeouts. Leading the system in batting average, on-base percentage, and stolen bases, Morabito won Organizational Player of the Year 2024 honors and was ranked 19 on Amazin’ Avenue’s 2025 Top 25 Mets Prospect List.
Morabito began the 2025 season with Double-A Binghamton and remained there for the entire season. Appearing in 118 games, he hit .273/.348/.385 with 27 doubles, 2 triples, 6 home runs, 49 stolen bases in 60 attempts, and drew 47 walks to 115 strikeouts. After the season ended, the organization sent him to the Arizona Fall League, where he appeared in 17 games for the Scottsdale Scorpions and hit .362/.450/.464 in 69 at-bats with 2 doubles, 1 triple, 1 home run, 16 stolen bases in 19 attempts, and drew 10 walks to 15 strikeouts. He was ranked 15 on Amazin’ Avenue’s 2026 Top 25 Mets Prospect List, and began the season assigned to the Triple-A Syracuse Mets. He hit the ground running in his first taste of Triple-A baseball, hitting .300 in the month of April, but slowed down as May progressed. Prior to his promotion, the outfielder was hitting .253/.364/.390 in 41 games with 6 doubles, 1 triple, 4 home runs, 14 stolen bases in 16 attempts, and drew 21 walks to 40 strikeouts.
The 5’10”, 180-pound Morabito is solid and thick, but quick-twitch speedy and athletic. Year after year, the Mets have tinkered with Morabito’s set-up at the plate. After changing it during the 2025 season to have him more square at the plate, and then closing him up during the Arizona Fall League, Morabito is now standing fairly open, with his hands at his eyes and his bat head angled almost perpendicular to the ground. The slight leg lift that he began using in the AFL remains, as opposed to the toe tap he used throughout the 2025 season in Binghamton, but even with the slight leg lift, his load and weight shift are still minimal and his mechanics at the plate have very little wasted movement.
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He is quick and direct to the ball with a level, flat swing plane. Morabito is capable of hitting the ball hard- during his time with the Syracuse Mets, statcast radars tracked 18 batted ball events resulting in exit velocities over 100 MPH and 39 resulting in exit velocities over 95 MPH, roughly 33% of his registered batted ball events- but because of his swing path, he is hitting the ball on the ground more often than not. Morabito had a 23.6% line drive rate, 51.9% groundball rate, and 24.5% fly ball rate upon his promotion, which is in line with his career data; in 2025, he had a 24.1% line drive rate, 53.9% ground ball rate, and 21.9% fly ball rate, and in 2024, he had a combined 24.9% line drive rate, 55.0% ground ball rate, and 20.1% fly ball rate. Most concerningly, Morabito has been absolutely unable to elevate fastballs of any kind, averaging a 3-degree launch angle against them. Against breaking and off-speed pitches, Morabito has had a bit more success elevating them, but even still, he is averaging a 10-degree launch angle against all secondary pitches, still highly suboptimal.
On the whole, Morabito has struggled against fastballs, hitting .197/.340/.316 in the limited data of his month-plus in Syracuse this season. He had his most success against breaking balls, hitting .315/.383/.500 against them. Against fastballs, his swing typically seems be late, going back up the middle or to the opposite field, but against slower secondary pitches, he is pulling the ball more.
Allowing Morabito to succeed, such as he has, with his batting profile and spray chart, is his elite speed. The outfielder’s calling card are groundballs that are legged out for hits, keeping his minor league batting average and BABIP inflated. A true plus runner, Morabito has posted 90th percentile outcomes in various speed-quantifying metrics over the years, and leverages that speed into extra bases when the ball is put into play, leading the system in stolen bases (129) since being drafted in 2022.
A shortstop for the majority of his high school experience, Morabito began playing the outfield late and was drafted as an outfielder. Despite having experience, he has not played in the infield since turning pro save a handful of games where he manned second base in 2023. The majority of his playing time has come in center, where he has shown the ability to be an above-average fielder. Morabito is not graceful like many of the great centerfielders, but he has above-average range and can cover a lot of ground. His arm is fringe-average for the outfield, but his glovework is sure. Over the years, Morabito has improved as a defender, learning on the fly. As long as he remains a plus runner, he will have the ability to play center, tracking down balls and correcting himself with “brute speed” when the technical aspects of the position allude him.
