The next player to be featured in our 2025 Athletics Season in Review is 23-year-old righty Luis Morales. Morales made his big-league debut this year with the A’s and looks like a future standout for the team.
How was he acquired?
Luis Morales was born in Antilla, Cuba and grew in talent and promise while playing for the 18U Cuban team. While playing on the Cuban national team in the 2020 U-23 Baseball World Cup in Mexico City, Morales defected. He was ruled an international free agent by Major League
Baseball for the 2023 MLB international signing period. The A’s saw Morales pitch at showcases in Mexico, where his fastball reached as high as ninety-nine mph.
He was signed by the A’s in January, 2023, devoting the lion’s share of their bonus pool money to the hurler.
What were the expectations?
The 20-year-old was older than the top players on the international market but still ranked No. 5 overall on MLB Pipeline’s International Top 50. In 2024, as part of the Lansing Lugnuts, the A’s High A affiliate he was invited to pitch in the Futures Game. While it’s clear that the A’s saw real potential in Morales, no one predicted how quickly he’d rocket through the minors and pitch in “the bigs.”
2025 Results
Morales made his MLB debut on August 1 in West Sacramento against the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was his first and only relief appearance of his inaugural season. He followed that with nine consecutive starts, logging a 4-3 record with a 3.14 ERA for the A’s, with forty-three strikeouts in forty-eight innings. His signature outing of the year was August 27th against the (then) American League Central leaders, the Detroit Tigers. He tossed a seven-inning shutout giving up just two hits and two walks while striking out seven for his second career victory.
2026 Outlook
The off-season is still young, and with the Winter Meetings still on the horizon, no one knows for sure what the Athletics starting rotation will look like. However, based on how Luis finished the 2025 season, I believe he has an excellent chance of being in the rotation when the season starts.
