Pittsburgh Pirates: Four Potential Minor League Free Agent Targets

Reyes Moronta

It wasn’t all that long ago that Reyes Moronta looked like he could be a long-term piece of the Giant bullpen. Between 2018 and 2019, the right-hander tossed 121.2 innings while having a 2.66 ERA, 3.39 FIP, and 1.19 WHIP. Moronta was a strikeout machine, getting 29.3% of batters faced down on strike three. He also had a fantastic 0.59 HR/9. While he only had a 39.8% ground ball rate, he had a strong 16.9% line-drive rate.

Plus, when it came to inducing soft contact, he excelled. In 2018, he was in the top 3% of the league in average exit velocity (85.4 MPH) and in the top 2% of baseball in hard-hit rate (25.3%). Moronta’s biggest struggles were walks. He gave out free passes at a very poor 13.8% rate. This, along with his so-so ground ball rate led to a 4.38 xFIP and 4.01 SIERA.

Moronta looked like a potential closer candidate for the Giants heading into 2020, but he was forced to miss the entire season, having to undergo Tommy John surgery. He also pitched just 4 innings in the major leagues this year. Though it’s a very small sample size, his four-seam fastball, which averaged around 96-97 MPH in 2018-2019, came in at just about 94 MPH.

Though if Moronta is healthy, you can’t deny he has the stuff. If he can get his fastball back up around 95-96 MPH, it’ll be more than enough for him to excel. He has a nasty slider that he got whiffs at more than 40% of the time in both 2018 and 2019.

2022 would be the big right-hander’s age-29 campaign. Given the success he previously had, he’d be a nice low-risk/high-reward option. Moronta isn’t all that old and if he can regain some of his velo, he could be a deadly weapon to put in the back of the bullpen alongside David Bednar.