A's Rookie on Star-Studded, Yet Worrisome List

The Athletics signed right-hander Luis Morales out of Cuba in January of 2023, and just two years later the 22-year-old is in the big leagues. Not only has he been added to the rotation, but he's been carving up opposing hitters, posting a 3-0 record with a 1.59 ERA across 28 1/3 innings of work in his first six appearances (five starts).

While he's had 11 walks in that span, five of those came against the Baltimore Orioles in his first career start, and he still managed to work a scoreless outing. He's also struck out 30 batters and given up just 17 hits, which speaks to how special his stuff truly is.

With a bit of a sample size to work with, we wanted to take a look at how Morales stacks up—small sample size and all—with some other 22 year old pitchers in their rookie seasons since 2010.

Luis Morales among the best rookie pitchers since 2010

His 5.4 hits per nine rate ranks at the top of the leaderboard (87 pitchers), though he's also thrown the second-fewest innings. His ERA+ of 268 ranks second to Reds prospect Rhett Lowder (378), who achieved the feat last season and needed Tommy John this year. Both players have an identical 3.10 FIP, though Lowder's ERA was slightly lower at 1.17 with a pair of extra innings tacked on.

Right behind Morales on the ERA+ leaderboard is Atlanta Braves starter Ian Anderson's 2020 campaign, in which he held a 242 across 32 1/3 innings of work. After a solid 2021 campaign, he struggled in 2022 and needed Tommy John in 2023, which kept him out for two seasons. He returned to the mound in '25 with the Angels, but he was DFA'd and ended up back in the Braves' system.

Paul Skenes has been arguably the best pitcher in baseball since his arrival when he posted a 1.96 ERA in his rookie year last season. He's followed that up with a 1.98 ERA in 2025, and almost eerily similar metrics across the board. Because he tossed 133 innings in his rookie season, however, Morales has graded out better in a smaller sample. Skenes put up a 209 ERA+ in 2024..

Some of the other names in the top-10 are Michael Soroka, who also missed a pair of seasons due to injury, Lucas Giolito, who has suffered with both injuries and up-and-down performance, and Dustin May, who debuted in 2019 and didn't reach 100+ innings until this season.

Only four players have posted WHIPs under 1.00 on this list—Skenes (0.947), Giolito (0.949), José Fernández (0.979), and Morales (0.988)—which is some elite company. Since this is such a small smaple size we're working with for Morales, he could allow a few baserunners on Monday night against the Boston Red Sox and be off of that list for the time being, too.

Morales certainly has the arm talent to continue being mentioned among this caliber of starting pitcher, but the biggest concern will be keeping him healthy moving into 2026 and beyond.