It’s been 79 years since professional baseball has called Ontario, Calif., home, so during the first few weeks of ONT Field's existence, it seems beneficial for the Dodgers’ new Single-A affiliate to have a name that can be tossed on the marquee as a must-see attraction.
If early returns are any indication, Emil Morales is that name -- and he could wind up being a whole lot more as he makes his way through the system.
The Dodgers’ No. 5 prospect helped lead the Tower Buzzers to a 16-9 victory over visiting Fresno on Wednesday night. In the second inning, he hit a gargantuan opposite-field shot off right-hander Marcos Herrera (Rockies), his first of the season. Two frames later, facing southpaw Jhon Medina, he cranked a pull-side two-run homer off a breaking ball that he tucked inside the left-field foul pole.
Morales reached base three times and collected four RBIs, augmenting a supremely hot stretch in which he has racked up seven extra-base hits and 10 RBIs over his past five games. He entered the night seventh in the California League in wRC+ (129) and line-drive rate (29.2 percent), and he now leads the circuit with 14 RBIs. The performance marked his fifth career multihomer performance and second at the Single-A level.
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Morales, who was born in Spain before moving to the Dominican Republic as a youngster, has displayed an immense ceiling since signing with the Dodgers at the start of the 2024 international signing period. He won Dominican Summer League MVP honors out of the gate and then aced his stateside debut in the Arizona Complex League last year -- so well that he earned a late-season bump to Single-A (then Rancho Cucamonga), where he slashed .339/.420/.548 in 33 games.
MLB’s No. 83 prospect got into five Cactus League games this spring as a non-roster invitee and collected a pair of hits and an RBI along. Morales hit fifth in the club’s Spring Breakout contest on March 21, when he notched an RBI single and was the only member of the Dodgers to play the full nine innings, holding down shortstop for the club's prospect showcase.
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Morales’ fellow Dodgers prospects in the outfield may be continuously jockeying with one another for reps in a system jam-packed with talent at every level, the 19-year-old is far and away the jewel of the infield crop. He put his defensive chops on display in the eighth, ranging into shallow left to deny Fresno a late-inning knock.
Although Morales has continued to spend the majority of his time at shortstop defensively, he’s already made one start in 2026 at third base, where he could ultimately utilize his above-average throwing arm to his advantage in the long run.
But regardless of his defensive home, Wednesday was a reminder that his bat plays. And when he squares the ball up, it plays loud.