The Angels have agreed to a minor league contract with right-hander Reyes Moronta, MLBTR has learned. The 30-year-old righty had been in spring training with the Rangers but signed with the Mexican League’s Diablos Rojos after being cut loose by Texas. He posted a 2.35 ERA with a 13-to-5 K/BB ratio in 7 2/3 innings there before being picked up by the Halos.
Moronta was a high-end setup man for the Giants from 2017-19, pitching to a combined 2.66 ERA with a 29.8% strikeout rate and a fastball that averaged 97.1 mph over the life of 128 1/3 innings. Command was an issue for the big righty, evidenced by a 13.6% walk rate in that time, but his ability to miss bats still helped him move from lower-leverage spots into a position that allowed him to pick up a save and 27 holds during that time.
Shoulder surgery ended Moronta’s 2019 season a few weeks early and wiped out nearly all of his 2020-21 seasons, however. He returned to toss four innings with the Giants in 2021, allowing just one run in that time but also sporting a fastball that clocked it at an average of 94.3 mph — a nearly three mile-per-hour drop. The Giants removed him from the 40-man roster in September, and Moronta cleared outright waivers and subsequently elected free agency at season’s end.
The Dodgers signed Moronta to a minor league deal once the 2021-22 lockout was lifted, and less than three weeks into the season he’d made it up to their big league bullpen. He spent the next couple months as an up-and-down arm in L.A. before ultimately being designated for assignment and claimed off waivers by the D-backs. Overall, his 2022 campaign ended with 37 2/3 frames of 4.30 ERA ball, a 23.6% strikeout rate and an 11.2% walk rate. Moronta regained a bit of life on his heater, but last year’s 95.3 mph average was still a ways off from its peak levels.
The Angels have already lost Jose Quijada and Austin Warren to Tommy John surgery, and they’re also currently without veteran lefty Aaron Loup, who’s on the IL with a hamstring strain. They may also have to dip into their bullpen to stretch out Chase Silseth as a starter, with Jose Suarez on the shelf due to a shoulder strain.
Angels relievers still rank sixth in the Majors with a combined 3.24 ERA, but the group isn’t as deep as it was to begin the season. Adding Moronta, who has a career 3.02 ERA and 28.1% strikeout rate, to see if he can recapture some of his pre-surgery form makes for a sensible depth option.
His entrance music from the bullpen should be
“Help Moronta, help help Moronta”.
This one’s a bit of stretch.
Maybe it would have been better suited for former Giants’ closer Brian Wilson?
Until the Angels get the right people in there to develop the farm system the pitching will continue to fall apart! Apparently the Mexican leagues have become a resource for finding our pitching talent! Matt Wise got the job by default and three years later look where we are at? Name me one pitcher the organization has developed into a proven starter or reliever over the past three years? It’s all been free agents or waiver wire pickups!
@rotten Fair points on development. They brought up Detmers too quickly and he hasn’t really livened up to any sort of “ace” quality. It’s still too early on Silseth. Outside of 2020, Canning hasn’t been very good. Weren’t all these guys supposed to be #1 or #2 type pitchers? Barria seems to have worked out as a decent bullpen piece. I’ve not been crazy about Wantz. Warren was good in 2021, but has been bad since…
You forgot trades. We got Sandoval for Maldonado, which I think worked in our favor.
If Nevin is not going to let them work out of jams, not only will they no5 develop but their ERA will raise because Nevin will bring in an RP that is sure to allow most of the runners to score.
out of all the teams that could fix Moronta, the Angels are the least likely to develop him into a good rp, worth a shot tho lol
Do you mean the angels bullpen with the second highest WAR in baseball or a different one?
I’ll do your homework for you. Angels are being absolutely torched by defense and base running, the rest is all basically top 10 this year.
I do not expect their bullpen to keep that up, especially when you consider that the main guys who should be performing, Tepara, Loup, are totally collpasing, Top prospects like Tucker Davidson are sturggling out of the pen, add 2 major injuries to quality arms, and this Bullpen is about to fall apart just like every other year
Right now its their starting pitching that is struggling. Ohtani has a 6.0 ERA in the last three games, Canning is terrible, despite a quote I just read –
“Just baseball happened,” Canning said. “They put some balls in play that were tough plays and things happened. As [bad] as it feels, I still feel like I’m getting better every outing.” — His stats say otherwise. He’s gotten worse over the last two games.
Quijada and Warren are out for a while, and Loup hopefully won’t be back until next month. Although I’ve given Wantz a lot of crap lately, he seems to pitch better when he doesn’t have players on the bases, such as in his last two outings.
The next Chris Devinski.
Might as well take a shot.
….and the wheels are falling off. Minasian needs to stick to his job of finding talent for Nevin to manage. If you want to manage the team then fire Nevin and put on a uniform fat boy so the fans anger can be properly directed.
nevin is nothing but a puppet of minasian. a terrible combo.
Actually, Nevin is not a puppet. I posted a link to a Sports Illustrated article in another thread that talks about how Moreno basically told Minassian that his “playbook” wasn’t very good at to let Nevin manage.
That’s what I thought when I saw his picture: Big boy. Some pitchers are starting to look like NFL linemen, like Lance Lynn.
My name is Reyes Moronta, you killed my father, prepare to die.
Heh.
“I am not lefthanded!”
Ahh, the six fingered man.
Like it, like it
Gotta love a guy who is 5’10” 260!
That’s a lot of supper muscle.
That’s a spicy meat-ball!
Don’t mind this signing at all, most the guys I wanted dfa got injured. Talking about loup, and Suarez more specifically. Holder could be the next call up. I know at the deadline, they have to trade adell, for a bullpen arm.
Su-EEEEEEEEEEE!
Heh heh heh heh!