Members of the Blue Jays front office surely were grinning ear-to-ear Wednesday when the organization's top prospect provided a rarely seen highlight.
The Buffalo Bisons, Toronto's Triple-A affiliate, were shellacked by the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, but Gabriel Moreno turned in equivocally the most memorable moment of the game and one of the best of the minor league season. The catching prospect laced a 111 mph line drive in the ninth inning that was hit hard enough to do damage to the left field wall at Sahlen Field.
We're not talking about a dent in the wall either. Moreno's liner was hit with so much exit velocity that it got stuck in the padding, which forced umpires to rule the laser a ground-rule double.
Moreno, who signed with the Blue Jays as an international free agent in 2016, is identified as Toronto's top prospect and recently was tabbed by ESPN's Kiley McDaniel as the sixth-best prospect in all of baseball. The 22-year-old made his big league debut June 11 and appeared in 18 games for the Jays before he was sent back down to Buffalo. Moreno logged a .276 batting average with a double and four RBIs across 58 at-bats on the top flight.
Toronto currently rosters an All-Star catcher in Alejandro Kirk, but if Moreno keeps tearing the cover of the baseball, he might force the Blue Jays' hand and earn another promotion.
