Gerson Moreno

Organization Prospect Rankings

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  Ranked Detroit Tigers #18 prospect in 2018
  In a system that has plenty of high-velocity bullpen arms, Moreno has the best. Moreno sits in the high 90s and can get to 100 mph regularly. That velocity comes out of his hand easily with only modest effort. He can drive that fastball down in the zone with good plane or elevate it up in the zone. After throwing a curveball earlier in his career, he's adopted a slider that has made steady improvement. It's fringe-average right now, but with the quality of his plus-plus fastball, if he can even get it to average it will be good enough. He has a below-average changeup to keep lefties honest, but he doesn't always maintain his arm speed with it so the deception is lacking. Moreno lands on a stiff front side in his delivery and finishes with some recoil. That helps explain why his control is well below-average. When Moreno throws strikes, he succeeds, but too often he is working from behind in the count. Even with a less-than-ideal delivery, Moreno repeats it consistently enough to give hope that he can develop into a useful power reliever as he misses plenty of bats. But he'll get to that ceiling only with significant improvements.
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  Ranked Detroit Tigers #20 prospect in 2016
  When Moreno was 17, he was a 6-foot righthander with a live arm, physical projection and an average fastball. The $27,000 they invested to sign him out of the Dominican Republic could end up a bargain, as Moreno's velocity has skyrocketed since then. Strictly a relief prospect, Moreno sits in the mid-to-upper 90s and has reached 100 mph. He threw a curveball earlier in his career, but he's scrapped that in favor of a slider, which could develop into an average pitch but is still inconsistent. Moreno mostly works off his fastball and slider, which might be enough for him as a reliever, though the Tigers would like to see him use his changeup more to develop that nascent pitch. Gerson spent most of 2015 with short-season Connecticut, but he pitched well when he was promoted to low Class A West Michigan late in the season and during the Midwest League playoffs. He figures to return there to start 2016.