Diamondbacks 2022 Season Player Reviews: Reyes Moronta

Is the right handed reliever on the bubble prior to the tender deadline tonight?

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2022 Status: Arbitration 1, signed to minor league contract with the Dodgers, with salary of $1.5 Million if in majors.

Reyes Moronta 2022 and career starts

2022 Season Review

Reyes Moronta was signed as a 17 year old international free agent with by the San Francisco Giants in 2010. He worked his way up through their system making his major league debut for them at age 24 in 2017. 

The reliever enjoyed two very successful seasons for the Giants in 2018-19, throwing 122 innings and posting a 2.66 ERA. He struck out 11 batters per nine innings, although he walked over five per nine during that time. He relied on a 97 MPH four seam fastball and a slider with  4.8 inches above average horizontal movement that ranked in the top 10 in MLB. Batters were unable to hit the slider at all, batting .143 in 2018 and .125 in 2019 against the pitch.

Unfortunately he suffered a torn labrum in his right shoulder and required surgery in September of 2019. That kept him out of the entire 2020 season. While trying to make it back in 2021 he had another injury, this time a sprained elbow ligament. He appeared in only four games, and was eventually out righted and elected free agency. 

Signed by the Dodgers during spring training in 2022 to a minor league contract, he made it onto their major league roster on April 24th. He was optioned back and forth over the next few months but appeared in 22 games for the Dodgers before being placed on waivers in August. The Diamondbacks selected him and he appeared in 17 more games for Arizona, posting a 4.50 ERA.  

The Moronta that returned in 2022 wasn't the same pitcher that he was during his earlier time with the Giants. His four seam fastball was down almost two MPH, and the horizontal break on slider, while still above average was not quite as devastating as years prior. Moronta has always walked a lot of batters and with the Diamondbacks his strikeout percentage was only 17%, well below the 22% average.

Moronta had two saves and two blown saves with the D-backs and allowed 5-9 inherited runners to score. 

2023 Outlook

Moronta is in his second year of arbitration eligibility, and is projected to earn $2,000,000 in 2023. As of this writing, tonight is the tender deadline and the Diamondbacks will need to decide to tender Moronta a contract by tonights 6:00 P.M. MST deadline.

The version of Moronta that can throw 97MPH and get well above average movement on the slider would be a perfect fit for a team looking for more power and strikeouts in their bullpen. But Moronta did not really provide that during his time with the Diamondbacks. As such, he may possibly be on the bubble. Whether they tender him a contract or not will likely depend on their evaluation of his health and ability to maintain his stuff throughout the upcoming season. They may also look to his 3.27 xERA (expected ERA) from Statcast as a sign there is still more in the tank than the results numbers showed. 

Another aspect for consideration is Moronta's conditioning. Listed at 5'11", 265 pounds, he may be even a little heavier than that. This is something they may want to address with him as a condition for a contract tender.