April 25, 2019

By Kevin Glew

Canadian Baseball Network

Toronto Mets and Canadian Junior National Team alum Gareth Morgan (North York, Ont.) was released by the Seattle Mariners oon April 18.

The 23-year-old outfielder had played eight games with the M’s class-A Modesto Nuts to start this season.

Selected in the second round (74th overall) of the 2014 MLB draft, Morgan had played parts of six seasons in the Mariners’ organization, beginning at the Rookie ball level. The Mariners gave ehim a $2 million US signing bonus.

The 6-foot-4, 220-pound outfielder, who went to high school at the Blyth Academy in Toronto, evolved into a slugger in the M’s system. In 2017, he socked 17 home runs and 21 doubles, while batting .230, in 118 games for the class-A Clinton Lumberjacks.

He followed that up by belting a career-high 19 home runs for Modesto last season, while batting .157.

In all, in 350 games in the Mariners organization, he batted .198 with 45 home runs.