Put bluntly, Kendrys Morales is not having a good season.

The fact he has a respectable batting average (.251), a few home runs (20) and some memorable late-game heroics obscures the fact he hasn’t been particularly productive. Thanks to a poor .308 OBP, disastrous base running and no defensive value, Morales is one of just 19 qualified hitters with negative Wins Above Replacement (-0.4).

Forget the comparison to Edwin Encarnacion. Forget the idea of the 34-year-old living up to his contract. On a very basic level Morales has not been good enough for an everyday player. Right now, the Blue Jays are employing a guy who only hits and he’s doing it at an exactly league-average level – with the 100 wRC+ to show for it.

There were plenty of reasons to be skeptical of the Blue Jays signing Morales coming into 2017 – ranging from the three-year term to the way a full-time DH hampers roster flexibility – but the assumption was that he would at least hit well. He’d been above average with the bat in six of the last seven seasons, normally by a comfortable margin. Consistency at the plate was not the worry – and yet now it is.

The root of the veteran’s struggles are particularly unexpected. For the first time in his career, Morales just can’t hit the curveball. By both Pitch Info and PITCHF/x metrics, he ranks dead last among qualified hitters in Pitch Value on curves at -6.7 runs and -6.4 runs respectively.

As a free swinger it wouldn’t be surprise if curveballs had always been a trouble spot for Morales, but that isn’t the case. He’s been an above-average hitter against the pitch in his career. Prior to this year he’d hit .237 and slugged .412 against the offering – solid numbers considering it is almost always deployed in pitchers’ counts. Pitch Info figures his efforts were worth +12.1 runs, PITCHF/x a more modest +7.7.

Either way, this year it’s been a different story. Morales is hitting .184 against the curve, and the sight of the veteran digging in the dirt and coming up empty has become all too familiar for Blue Jays fans. On Saturday alone, he struck out against both Yusmeiro Petit and Troy Scribner in that fashion.

He also went for such an excavation against Cleveland Indians ace Corey Kluber last week.

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The issue knows no side of the plate as Morales has shown off similar swings against southpaws like Jordan Montgomery and Jose Quintana.

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It’s not so dire that he’s done nothing against the hook, he does have two home runs to show for his efforts. However, that pair of round trippers came of the unassuming duo of Anibal Sanchez and Tyler Wilson – who have combined for a 6.36 ERA in 75 innings this year. Neither has a devastating curveball, and both of the home runs in question came on pitches hung like Chinatown ducks.

#1 vs. Sanchez

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#2 vs. Wilson

Story continues