11:00am: Moore is guaranteed $3.5MM on a one-year deal with the Hawks and can earn an additional $2.5MM via incentives, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (Twitter link).
10:10am: Free-agent lefty Matt Moore has signed with the SoftBank Hawks of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, per a team announcement (link via the Japan Times). He’s represented by Apex Baseball.
The 30-year-old Moore appeared in just two games with the Tigers in 2019 before suffering a torn meniscus in his right knee which required surgery and ultimately knocked him out for the remainder of the year. A move to Japan is at least somewhat of a surprise for Moore — a formerly elite prospect who tossed 10 shutout innings with a 9-to-1 K/BB ratio and strong velocity (93.0 mph average fastball) in his tiny sample of 10 innings prior to last April’s injury.
Back in 2012, Moore was considered one of baseball’s three best prospects alongside Mike Trout and Bryce Harper. He may not quite have lived up to that sky-high billing early on, but Moore’s first 347 innings in the big leagues resulted in a 3.53 ERA with nearly a strikeout per frame. At the very least, he looked like a quality mid-rotation presence for the Rays, who selected him in the eighth round of the 2007 draft. And given that those numbers were compiled through his age-25 season, there was certainly some promise of a further breakout as he entered his prime years. Moore did, after all, finish ninth in AL Cy Young voting in an All-Star 2013 season that saw him toss 150 1/3 innings of 3.29 ERA ball.
Unfortunately for Moore, he suffered a torn UCL in 2014 that cost him most of that season and most of the 2015 campaign. He posted one solid, albeit unspectacular season upon returning from that injury before his struggles truly escalated; Moore logged a combined 5.99 ERA in 276 1/3 innings with 7.6 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 between the Giants and Rangers from 2017-18.
In spite of that rough two-year patch, however, he was still able to land a one-year, $2.5MM pact with the Tigers last winter. Given his relative youth — he’ll turn 31 in June — and the fact that his velocity in two starts this past season was higher than it had been since 2012, Moore seemed like a reasonable low-risk rebound candidate this winter.
However, the interest overseas clearly produced a better offer than any MLB club was willing to put forth, so Moore will become the latest in an increasing number of players to look to bolster their stock while playing abroad. He’s a higher-profile name than most who wind up signing in NPB or the Korea Baseball Organization, but that only adds to the level of intrigue. It’s easy to envision that with a strong showing for the Hawks, Moore could reemerge as a coveted rotation option for Major League teams once he returns to the open market.
Moore looked good in his two start sample last year. Obviously not big enough to draw any conclusions but the Tigers gave him 2.5 mil + incentives last year. I doubt he’s getting more than that in the NPB.
I was hoping he’d be one of the Orioles bargain bin moves this offseason.
The Hawks are the best team in Japan, and pay well.
There were only 30 players in the NPB who made north 2.5 MM last year. With the highest being just south of 5. That’s a big jump to another country if his guarantee isn’t near the top of that list.
Also an important and probably overlooked note. Moore is at 8 years of service time. 10 is the holy grail to hit in the MLB. That’s when your pension is fully vested. So yes, this move does still surprise me. Now if he ends up with a 5 million dollar guarantee v 2.5 in the states; that’ll make up for the fully vested pension. But if the dollars were closer than that; that would be a tougher call.
As mentioned at the end of the article it wouldn’t be shocking if he is doing this to re-establish himself with eyes on coming back to the bigs.
Pitching for the best team in Japan will lead to quite a bit more money and more meaningful innings than a minor league deal in the states, so if it works out for him he can probably land a 2 year deal next winter. If it doesn’t, he’ll at least have made more money over there than he was going to here.
The figures just came out. 3.5 +2.5 MM in incentives. That makes some sense now. His deal last year maxed out at 3.5 in the MLB. If he pitches like that over there; the extra 2.5 MM will make up for the lost year of service time. I was just pointing out the risks of a pitchers his age giving up a year of service time when he’s so close to 10 years. A team like the Orioles could’ve certainly given him a ML job all season long.
And the pitching market has been much more kind to free agents this offseason. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think that he could’ve gotten around the same deal he did last year..Which was a ML contract.
Good points. There are definitely plenty of tanking teams who would’ve made perfect sense to see if they could re-launch his career with eyes on flipping him for whatever they could get in July – the O’s, Mariners, Royals, Pirates, or a reunion w/ the Tigers come to mind.
I’m guessing no such market materialized, especially not one that would value him anywhere near what the Hawks are going to pay him.
You’re right that this has been a much friendlier market for pitchers this winter, but the FA market for starters next winter is going to be a good deal thinner, which should bode well for anyone who is able to show a pulse on a mound this year. If he does well in Japan I won’t be surprised if he gets a 2 year, 8-figure deal next winter.
Yep. I don’t disagree with you. I figured a good deal of people reading this had never even considered the service time ramifications though. Typically the guys who go overseas have a few years of service time at the most.
if he could’ve gotten say 2.8 million in the MLB versus 3.5 million in Japan. It’s not as simple to just look at those figures and think he made the smarter choice going to Japan. I’m just giving people something else to think about here.
Better sushi too!
I hate that you used the Pirates as one of the tanking teams. You act like they have a star caliber team and they are in contention. If you see something more to the Pirates, please explain with details how they are contenders. Outside of Marte and Bell, Pirates are a train wreck. How is that tanking if the team and organization is in total rebuild? Pirates are a small market team and doesn’t have the abilities to spend like the Yankees, Angels, Red Sox, and others, without going into bankruptcy. What the Pirates have now is a 50 win club at best. That isn’t great expectations, but the former front office left the Pirates in poor position to contend. Why should the Pirates spend on free agency when fans won’t go to the park anyways? I don’t see any profit for just a name sake.
Actually that isn’t correct. NPB isn’t obligated to divulge salaries and rarely tell the truth when they do. Foreigners are paid better then you would think, it’s the only way to entice a player who has the ‘MLB’ stigma on his mind.
Not true on the highest paid. Softbank’s foreign Closer is making $10M a year. CF just signed a 7 yr deal worth $30M not including incentives. $5.5M for first 4 years. Another starter besides Moore just came off a 3 yr $16M contract. 2 foreign hitters are each making $4M a year. Softbank is LOADED.
I just realized the salary sheet I pulled up was from 2018.
I’ll defer to you guys on that because I don’t know or really care to know enough about NPB baseball. I shouldn’t have ever commented on guys salaries because I truly don’t know. There’s enough baseball to follow in the States for me. But thanks for the correction.
I assume you’re commenting on a post I had in another article, Shannon.
The Orioles are tanking for the same reason. The Marlins are tanking for the same reason. Why would you call what the Pirates are doing any different? Mike Elias wasn’t the GM who ran the Orioles into the ground either….They’re tanking because they have poor rosters and have made poor decisions in the past.—And they’re making no effort to be competitive now. All 3 of those teams are. That’s how “tanking” starts.
I never said tanking was a problem in the first place. There’s never going to be 30 teams with a legitimate shot at the playoffs—That’s a fantasy. I think at this point there’s about 25 teams with plans of being competitive this year. That’s pretty good, IMO.
The Hawks are more loaded than most MLB teams….. so yes, he could easily make more than that in the NPB, as long as it’s with the Hawks.
What the….
Actually kind of surprised by this.
kind of surprising, looked good last year before he got injured
Kevin Gausman got $9 million guaranteed. He better have made sure his agent had a VERY nice Christmas.
A lot of teams should had taken a chance on him. I know the White Sox should had.
I never really understood why Mike Trout and Harper were ranked lower in the prospect ranking than Moore.
I believe public prospect ranks are a crapshoot designed purely for entertainment (as all sports leagues essentially are). Much like sports drafts, you can be 100% right and still be wrong.
Also always believe that how teams evaluate and rank their prospects differs from what you may see on Baseball America or MLB.com lists. Mainstream ones are more talent/tools/stats/development curve based while I’m sure teams take into account work ethic, discipline, behavior, etc. into determining how expendable or important a player may be to that franchise.
LHPs make scouts and evaluators feel funny in their pants
If you look at his K numbers in the minor leagues… that’s probably a big reason why he was rated so high as a prospect. He struck out over 200 hitters twice in the minors while only throwing about 145/150 Innings. Obviously those totals didn’t really translate in the majors but if you’re looking at a LH SP who’s averaging 10K/9+ at 20/21 years old — I can see how you could get carried away and rank him above Trout and Harper… even if it would have been safer (and ultimately more correct) to go with the hitting prospects as they pan out more than P’s do.
Heading into the 2012 season, Matt Moore was coming off a season where he had a 1.92 ERA, 2.50 FIP, 210 SO and a WHIP <1.00 in AA/AAA. He was left handed with a plus FB that sat in the mid 90s, a plus curve and an improving change up that had the potential to be above average to plus as well. He had 12+ K/9 every year in the minors while improving his BB/9 as he climbed the ladder. To top off his fantastic 2011 minor league season, he pitched 9.1 MLB innings and struck out 15 batters while only walking 3 which was good enough for a 2.89 ERA and 2.17 FIP. He looked like he was ready to be an ace and perennial CYA challenger.
Trout at the time was coming off a great year in AA, but struggled with a .220/.281/.390 slash in 135 MLB PA. Harper also had a great season down in A ball, but only slashed .256/.329/.395 in AA.
With the benefit of hindsight, it's obvious Matt Moore didn't live up to his potential, while Trout far exceeded his most optimistic projections and Harper has been an above average regurlar. However, at the time Matt Moore was clearly the best pitching prospect in baseball and deserving of his consensus top 3 prospect rankings.
softbank? makes the little nike logo seem ok when over there they have corporations in the team names
The owner of the Carp owns Mazda, most owners own big companies. The SoftBank owner in one of the richest men in the world.
Well maybe it wont be bad for him can go have good year and get strength back in arm not a bad idea. Different view of pitching there might even pick up another pitch
Very good thoughts! ….. Maybe a split? Prove to the US teams he’s healthy again for a year and get paid more over there doing it.
two good starts does not a rejuvenated career make. this guy is done.
your great baseball expertise told you this?
while he could have worked out for the Brewers but I think he would just slow down the young pictures progress in the majors and AAA plus we did sign a decent amount of left-handers already this year
Some MLB should have invested a couple million in him and made him a reliever.
If someone with a torn achilles can get 10.5 million, im sure Moore would have helped a big league club
This is shocking to me
Overpay
Good for him. Hopefully he can go over there and unlock that untapped potential that made him a top 50 prospect in baseball, less than a decade ago. If he can dominate over there, I’m sure he’ll have offers next winter from MLB clubs.
wow. that’s a hefty contract for the NPB.
Not really. Softbank’s foreign Closer is making $10M a year. CF just signed a 7 yr deal worth $30M not including incentives. Another starter besides Moore just came off a 3 yr $16M contract. 2 foreign hitters are each making $4M a year. Softbank is LOADED.
Looks like Matt Moore might just be the best foreign starting pitcher in the NPB since Miles Mikolas.
Potentially, but don’t count your chickens. Tough league there. Mike Bolsinger actually did well too…. 13W-2L.
Since following this site I have become much more interested in the Japanese and Korean Leagues. Does anyone know a way to watch these games online? What time would it usually be in the Eastern time zone when the games are live? Does Japan have an income tax? Moore would still have to pay U.S. income tax, wouldn’t he?
You can pay to view games in Japan. Try: tv,pacificleague.jp 16 hour difference for games beginning here on the west coast.
The tax implications favor the player. If he stays in Japan enough days the taxes here are small, a consumption tax I believe it’s called.