Logan Morrison‘s 24 home runs is good for second in all of baseball, but he still failed to receive an invite to the Home Run Derby.
Logan Morrison isn’t happy.
The Tampa Bay Rays‘ first baseman is having a laudable season when it comes to big flies. He’s already launched 24, and such a mark is tied for second in all of baseball behind Aaron Judge‘s 27.
Morrison’s already slugged his way past his career-best 23 bombs, which accomplished during the 2013 season as a Florida Marlin. It took 123 games to reach that clip, but just 80 games this season to set a new personal record. Probably safe to say he’s emerged as a notable home run hitter.
Not quite, apparently.
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Morrison failed to receive an invite to this year’s Home Run Derby in lieu of New York Yankees’ Gary Sanchez. The second-year catcher out of the Bronx broke onto the scene last year with an impressive power display with 20 big flies in 53 games. In the same amount of games this season, The Kraken’s left the yard just 14 times.
Sanchez’s 14 homers is the least of all eight participants amongst a star-studded panel of Giancarlo Stanton, Cody Bellinger, Mike Moustakas, Miguel Sano, Charlie Blackmon, Justin Bour, and Judge.
Morrison voiced his displeasures to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times on Tuesday. “Gary shouldn’t be there. Gary’s a great player, but he shouldn’t be in the Home Run Derby.”
Such power numbers off the bat of Morrison are getting overlooked, he explained, due to the fact that he plays on a small-market team. Sanchez, however, plays in the Big Apple.
And sure, there is reasoning behind his fit of temper. It’s fun to see the guys with the most homers, and the best power, in the Derby. To be fair, though, Sanchez basically missed the first month of the season due to strained right biceps. When he has been healthy, all he’s done is build off an impressive rookie season that nearly won him Rookie of the Year honors without playing in close to a full slate of games.
It’s hard to side against Morrison on this one, and it’s fun to see a guy that seemingly really wants to participate. He told Topkin he probably would have engaged in the July 10 festivities if he received an invitation.
But instead, it’ll be Sanchez that’ll pack his bags for a getaway to Miami in hopes of dethroning last year’s champion Stanton on his home turf. And someone feels excluded.
“I remember when I had 14 home runs. That was a month and a half ago,” added Morrison.