This story was excerpted from Anne Rogers’ Royals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

This graduation season, the Royals had their own graduate to celebrate.

Bullpen catcher and pitching strategist Parker Morin earned his Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the University of Utah this spring after three years of online classes. And when his cap and gown arrived at Kauffman Stadium two weeks ago, pitching coach Brian Sweeney made sure everyone knew about Morin’s accomplishment.

“I didn’t know what the package was when I opened it,” Morin said this week in San Diego. “Sweeney, unfortunately, was in the room with me when I opened it, and he made me put it on, took a picture.

“He said he wanted to send it to my wife, but he sent it to all the coaches, too. So I was like, ‘Oh of course, this will spread around.’ I’m an under-the-radar person, people don’t need to know about this stuff. But he made sure everybody knew. And he got me a cake.”

Morin is more behind the scenes when it comes to the Royals’ staff, but his work is crucial. Beyond catching bullpens for pitchers in between their outings, and offering feedback on their stuff in real-time, he’s a pitching analyst for the staff. That means he works with the pitching coaches to create plans for each series, do advanced work on opposing hitters, and create reports for each Royals pitcher.

“He’s there whenever you need him,” Brady Singer said. “I use him for scouting quite a bit. We have all the analytics, and it shoots out information that we use every day. But he’s watching the video and finding things that only the eye can see. I look to him for a lot of stuff. I really like to look at hitters on video and then use the numbers for more information, and that’s what he does best.

“He gives great feedback. He just has a really good feel for the game, what we’re working on, understanding our strengths.”

Sweeney added: “It’s a huge benefit to us as a pitching team to have an analyst like that. A guy that can catch bullpens, actually see what the guys are doing, and then go ahead and dig into the data and bring it to life for each one of the guys.”

Morin, 31, was the Royals’ 14th-round pick in the 2012 Draft out of the University of Utah. After seven Minor League seasons and one independent ball season, the Royals brought him on as the Major League team’s second bullpen catcher in 2020. They added strategist to his title in ‘21. 

For a night game, Morin is at the ballpark by noon, getting a quick workout in before diving into video and data, either double-checking and updating the reports for that night’s starter or creating scouting reports and plans for the next series. Throughout the afternoon, he catches bullpens and is involved in meetings about that night or upcoming games.

“Really it’s about putting together a plan that’s the best way to attack the opposing hitter,” Morin said. “I’ll look at the opposing hitter first, go through their weaknesses and find the areas we want to attack. And then with all the information we get, try to marry that together with the pitcher’s strength. What does our guy do really well that matches up with an opposing hitter, and then vice versa. Stay out of the damage areas, find the good areas to attack.”

Outside of the ballpark, Morin has had homework and exams. His college career began at College of Southern Idaho before transferring to Utah in 2012. When he was drafted that summer, he promised himself that he would get his degree when he finished playing. He studied exercise science in school, but continuing that degree online wasn’t feasible.

Morin switched his major over to psychology and started the program, taking the classes in his spare time. Coffee became a necessity, and time management was crucial.

“It was important for me to finish what I started,” Morin said. “I really should have done it while I was playing because I had so much more time. But it was really important for me to finish. And I wanted to see where it goes.”

The Royals celebrated Morin at the ballpark with cake during the last homestand, while his wife, Kacy, flew his family to Kansas City for a surprise celebration.

Morin has slightly more free time now, but he’s already thinking about what comes next. Another degree?

“I am thinking about it,” Morin said. “I want to keep exploring things. I don’t know what I would do, but I was actually talking to (senior director of performance science) Austin Driggers about it. Biomechanics is really cool. And it goes closely with what I’m doing now, reading the swings all the time, pitchers mechanics.”