Gabriel Moreno Is Finally Realizing His Full Potential
After a couple of injury-riddled seasons, the Diamondbacks backstop is turning into one of baseball's best.
The Arizona Diamondbacks have been one of baseball’s more intriguing teams in recent years despite the fact that they haven’t actually won anything. As a matter of fact, they’ve missed the playoffs in each of the last two years. They’ve repeatedly had rosters full of talent, but failed to fully tap into it.
Despite the 2023 campaign in which they reached the World Series, it feels as if they constantly fall short of the preseason expectations placed on them.
The same thing can be said about their catcher, Gabriel Moreno. For the last few years, we’ve been waiting for him to tap into the talent that made him a top-10 prospect in the sport years ago.
We’ve gotten so many flashes, and he has yet to have a bad season, but it always felt like there was much more left in the tank.
Well, the 2026 season is where that conversation changes. Not only has he put together one of the best catcher seasons in baseball this season, but he’s fully cemented himself as one of the best backstops in the sport.
Stats were taken prior to play on August 17.
He Has Arrived
Moreno quickly announced his presence with a cup of coffee in 2022. He accumulated nearly a full win above replacement (0.8 fWAR) in just 25 games and had Diamondbacks fans’ expectations sky high.
While the following year — his first full season — may not have been as good offensively, he was a big contributor in the club’s shocking run to the Fall Classic and went on to win the National League’s Gold Glove. Once again, fans’ expectations couldn’t have been higher for the backstop, especially after coming off a World Series run with him behind the plate.
Now, the next two seasons were rough, but not for the reasons you might think. He posted a 107 wRC+ in 2024 and a 117 in 2025, but struggled to consistently stay on the field. He failed to surpass 100 games in either season, and questions about his durability became increasingly more serious.
It was frustrating to talk about considering the talent Arizona had on their hands. Everybody knew that if he finally put it together for a relatively full season, he’d easily be one of the league’s best catchers.
Thankfully for the Diamondbacks, that has finally come to fruition. In 2026, the 26-year-old has posted a .308 AVG, .385 OBP, 134 wRC+, and 11% walk rate — all of which are the best marks among qualified catchers in baseball.
So, what changed?
To be frank, nothing in the quality of contact screams breakout, but there have been some adjustments in terms of the swing-and-miss. So far this season, Moreno has posted a career-low whiff percentage at 15.4% (92nd percentile) while also holding a career-high zone contact rate at 91.1%.
While simply trying to make more contact doesn’t work for everybody, it significantly benefits Moreno due to his profile as a hitter. He’s never been the guy to sell out for power and, thanks to the improvements in contact, roughly 91% of his hits this season have been singles and doubles.
It’s not just the bat that makes him so valuable, either. Moreno has consistently been one of the best defensive catchers in the National League, and the same goes for this year.
His 10 Defensive Runs Saved is tied for first in the National League among catchers with at least 550 innings caught, while his Fielding Run Value of six ranks second.
This, combined with the improvements at the plate, has led to Moreno blowing his previous career high in value (2.7 fWAR) out of the water with 3.8 fWAR in 2026 so far. That mark ranks second in all of baseball behind just Dillon Dingler (5.1 fWAR), a guy who’ll be in MVP conversations in the American League.
Final Thoughts
While this is the first healthy season that Moreno has put together in over two years, it’s also the most consistent. After a couple of underwhelming and injury-riddled seasons following a trip to the World Series, the young backstop has finally turned into what everybody thought he would as a premier prospect.
The jump in contact rates has helped him turn into arguably baseball’s best offensive catcher in 2026, while the glove has remained impressive.
Diamondbacks fans will tell you this has been in the tank the entire time, and the rest of the league is finally noticing. After years of waiting, Arizona has finally gotten their true catcher of the future.
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Michael Monreal got his start in baseball media when he started his own website covering the San Francisco Giants after playing two years of college baseball.…