Sept. 8: Cincinnati announced today that Moran has been released. He’s a free agent who can now sign with any team. If he lands with another club and is added back to the Major League roster, he’d technically be under club control for another season, as he’ll finish the year with five-plus years of service, though this year’s struggles may render that a moot point.
Sept. 6: The Reds announced that they have reinstated outfielder Albert Almora Jr. from the injured list, with infielder Colin Moran getting designated for assignment in a corresponding move.
Moran, 29, is in his seventh MLB season. He spent the 2018-2021 stretch with the Pirates, hitting .272/.330/.428 over the first three years of that time. That production was exactly league average, as evidenced by his 100 wRC+. He took a bit of a downturn last year, slashing just .258/.334/.390 for a wRC+ of 97. Moran was making $2.8MM last year and headed for a raise through arbitration, but the club decided to move on, designating him for assignment in November.
He ended up landing with the Reds on a $1MM deal but hasn’t fared much better this year. Moran hit .211/.305/.376 across 42 MLB games, getting optioned multiple times and outrighted in June. He slashed .249/.310/.415 in 53 Triple-A games and was selected back to the 40-man roster just over a week ago when Mike Moustakas landed on the IL, but he’s now lost his spot yet again.
The Reds recently promoted corner infield prospect Spencer Steer, whom they acquired in the Tyler Mahle trade a few weeks ago, likely playing a part in nudging Moran out of their plans. They can use the final weeks of the season to evaluate Steer and see if he fares well enough to secure himself a job on next year’s team.
The Reds can have Van Meter in exchange for Moran
The Reds already had Van Meter and got rid of him a couple years ago. I get it Pirates fans, you want him to go away but writing about it in here everyday isn’t going to make it happen any time sooner.
Pirated gave Van Meter a DFA yesterday.
@Mercenary.Freddie.Freeman DFA him again
Why would the Pirates want Moran back?
Yes, the Pirates have such a powerful offense. ( .220 team batting average, last in NL in runs scored, first in batting strike outs per 9 innings)
Taking on more offense would be a mistake
My bad
Guy thinks batting average is important lol
Did video tape even exist the last time anyone has heard a gm or manager say we got get better at hitting for average lol
when the team average is .220 and they’re dead last in runs scored, you have to admit, the hitters are horrible
Maybe people like you think otherwise
Man on third, two outs. Is that walk as good as a hit? I’ll take batting average over ops any day, young one.
They’re definitely horrible. When Ben Gamel is one of your better hitters you’re in trouble. The problem is I don’t think the Pirates really care.
Pssshttt when you walk another batter gets to go.
OPS includes batting average. Derp.
OPS takes that into account, since walks don’t count towards slugging percentage (although wOBA and wRC+ are better overall metrics).
Meanwhile, should walks have completely neutral value? Is a single as good as a double?
LOL leave it to a Met fan to not only be wrong.. But to be so overconfidently wrong. OPS= On Base Plus Slugging. It’s in the name kid DERP DERP DEPR DEPR DPDPEPRPD
Guy thinks batting average is not important lol
And what does on base average include? Go ahead, say it.
It’s a good indicator.
Chop on, you win the moron award. On base includes batting average. How could you possibly not know that? Did I just teach the basics of baseball statistics? Dumbest comment if the year. Double derp.
No one has ever said a walk is as good as a double. No one.
Batting average has some importance but EXPERTS know that it it is not as important as OBP and is a terrible solo stat to go by. So go make fun of the experts.
Cosmo- Batting average is still a very important stat.Does anyone really think that a single is not better than a walk?Certainly no “ experts” would say that.I think that the problem is that OBP has also become a very important stat probably only over the last 20-25; years.Eddie “Walking Man” Yost led the Al I think six times in walks in the 1950’s averaging over 100 in his complete years,hence the nickname.His OBP was higher than his slugging %,and he played for 18 years largely because of it.I think that he batted second so it was a very important stat for him and team to have.
It just seems to me that this arguement has arisen because depending on your viewpoint and love of statistics one or the other has clearly become the be all end all statistic.I look at it as just another tool in the toolbox.My guess is that the “ experts” do the same.
No, on base percentage does not include batting average. BA is a similar stat, but it’s not “included,” as OBP adds walks and a couple other things to the numerator, while the denominator consists of almost all plate appearances instead of at-bats.
Also, you can have a below average BA yet a really good OBP if you walk a lot like Yasmani Grandal often does.
No, but anyone who values BA (or even OBP) over OPS like Sideline Redwine is basically saying that a single is as good as a double.
Batting average does have some value, but basically:
wOBA & wRC+ > OPS & OPS+ >>> OBP > BA
It includes hits and at bats, therefore it includes batting average. All batting average is is hits and at bats so….
The problem with batting average is it’s predictability. In any case, few and far between are high batting average hitters without a high OBP. Point is, a .250 hitter with a .400 OBP is better than a .280/.310 guy. In that sense, batting average doesn’t matter, but of course in many other cases it does, it’s just very uneven and hard to predict.
Cosmo-I would have to agree with you on your example.I also think that if you are basically “just a singles hitter” but also carry a high OBP and bat lead off ( in the “old” days”) that OBP would tend to be clearly more important than BA because you would be getting on base more times for the power hitters to drive you in,In those cases who cares how you got on base just that you got on base.
I do tend to disagree with the current trend of batting a guy like Schwarber first in the lineup though.I know that they do that because he walks a lot,and if he is batting third he may get 30-35 less times to bat over the course of a year.But,especially if you have a good lead off guy and second batter with a high OBP,the home runs that he does hit will be coming clearly more often with men on base,even if the 3 or so home runs that he does not get by added at bats would give you runs too.
No, it doesn’t include BA, because you add stuff to both sides of the fraction.
Lanidrac-Please just google “what is OBP for MLB baseball” if you do not believe the 357 of us who say it includes hits.
You are correct in that it does not include BA per se.
You are right about Schwaber 22 solo shots only 78 RBIs. Only 6 SBs. Gone are the days of guys like Omar Moreno who would get on base and steal second for you. I think the Pirates even had Vogelbach lead off early in the season. Talk about clogging the base paths.
Vogelbach is what is known as a mini/maxi Schwarber.I guess if you don’t have good one and two hitters you might as well hit your slow home run hitters lead off as,especially with the DH now,your eight and nine hitters might not be a lot worse.
To me though it seems like an a$$ backwards way of putting a lineup together.
The point is to get rid of Van Meter.Moran was Mickey Mantle in comparison.
Considering the Pirates have used 8 different players at 1B its probably not out of the realm of possibility, though it would more likely be on a minor league deal over the winter than right now
Can’t trade anyone who is DFA unless they were not on the 40.
I don’t know, at least Josh VanMeter can kind of fake it at 2B and 1B. Moran can’t even fake it at 3B and 1B.
Wait, so batting average isn’t an important stat anymore?
Are you people insane? The point of the game offensively is to score runs. The best way to do that is to get hits. BA tells you how often the player gets a hit.
Did I miss something? Y’all are cray
Unfortunately thank to new metrics and the “Statcast era” Batting Average isn’t as important as how high you can pop the ball up in the air and hope it goes over the wall.
Baseball has lost all of its fundamentals. Making good contact, baserunning/stealing, moving runners over, hit and run, bunting, has all given way to exit velocity and launch angle. When we were taught to hit we were told to stay on top of the ball, not underneath it and now it’s the total opposite.
Batting average, even in the stat cast era where things like launch angle and velocity off the bat dominate the conversation; is still important. It tells you how often a player gets a hit. That’s important. You want guys that get hits at a higher rate than others. If you give me two guys one of them has plus stat cast everything but hits .200 with 10 home runs; another that has awful stat cast rates but hits .300 with 10 home runs. I seriously, utterly don’t care about those stat cast rates. At all
Sometimes I feel like I’m living in a coo coo clock
OPS is a better tool because A: hits are beneficial and B: Walks are also beneficial but not as beneficial as hits.
This way we can differentiate between someone like Rameil Tapia who hits .261 which you might think is okay in this offensive environment. Problem is his OBP is .284.
Now lets compare Tapia to another .261 hitter: Dodgers catcher Will Smith. Smith has an OBP of .351
It’s obvious that Smith is the more valuable hitter. Who doesn’t want a hitter who gets on base 7% more? But if you only distinguish players by batting average you’d never know that. This is why OBP is superior.
Astro-It is in your example.But how about for this one.Two outs in the ninth inning,man on third,one run behind.,would you rather have a 280 AV 300 OPS hitter up or one with an OPS of 320 but an AV of 220?
In that situation I 100% get that a good contact hitter can tie it up with a single. But I’d still take the second guy as he has a 2% less chance of losing the game. Also high OBP guys tend to draw more pitches so there’s a higher chance of a passed ball/wild pitch.
But let’s say we agree to disagree, which is totally cool. I have to point out that BA, like OPS is context neutral meaning it doesn’t tell us how players do in specific situations. Maybe the .280 guy wilts with runners in scoring position and the .220 guy mashes. Neither stat gives us that info.
So if you want to see who has been good in the clutch then I’d suggest WPA (Win Probability Added) which measures how much a player contributes to their team winning games. For instance, in your scenario, if the .280 hitter hits a tying single then his WPA goes up significantly. He whiffs and it goes down. If he were up in a 15-2 game and hits a single his WPA would barely budge because who cares about meaningless singles off position players. Aaron Judge, unsurprisingly is the WPA leader this season. Now I don’t really believe in clutch but I know that lots of people disagree and that’s a whole other can of worms we don’t need to delve into. But, it might be a stat that interests you
Astro- I wouldn’t take the 280 hitter because as far as hitting he would have a 27.3% better chance of getting a hit to tie the game.Any additional advantage for the 220 hitter would be much much lower.
I do believe that there are statistics for hitting with runners in scoring position from the 7 th inning on which would be an important consideration in whether to pinch hit or not for a particular batter.
WPA seems to be a useful statistic.I do believe that some athletes in any sport play better with pressure on them while some wilt under it.I do not doubt that there are statistics that could show who is better under pressure.
Edit did not work.First verb is would.
DFA VanMeter
I remember some people saying Colin Moran shouldn’t have been released by the Pirates.
Now who’s laughing??? Albert Almora, that’s who!
I’m bullish on Steer
Don’t have a cow about him.
His 0-7 showing about drove me nuts
His last 0-7 showing about drove me nuts
The Pirates don’t want him and now the Reds. Hopefully he invested his money well. If he gets 100 more at bats in the Majors I’ll be shocked.
Colin Moran had good hand eye coordination but was otherwise the least athletic professional athlete I have ever seen.
Dan Vogelbach on line 1
“I’m not an athlete, I’m a Baseball player”
-John Kruk
“I’m too drunk to taste this chicken.”
– Colonel Sanders
Kruk many have made the HOF if he had been an athlete.
When they signed him, I thought he would be the perfect DH. But I guess I was remembering the old Colin Moran, good contact hitter and Reds killer for several years. The reality was a guy well past his prime.
He’s honestly no worse than Moustakas has been and cost significantly less
Is this the worst Reds team ?
They’re not even the worst team in their own division.
Not if you define the Pirates as a team.
Yeah, but the kids here in Pittsburgh and in their farm system will have them competitive in ‘24 and talking World Series after that
Says so right here in the brochure
Come on Angels. I’d rather him get at bats, than Duffy
Reds release Colin Moran. Boil water warning announced.
Reds can’t steer wrong with decision to cut Moran. Moose is next baby!
Re-sign Solano if Donnie Barrels will take a small pay-cut.
MARLINS originally signed him, and right now they need to try anything offensively-wise, as they’re the very worst in both leagues. Why not sign him again, as Brian Anderson has lost all value to this team at third base..
Everyone was saying the Cardinals needed to sign him before the season and I thought they were nuts. They got Dickerson instead and while it looked bad for a while, he is almost up to .300.
Time for the Giants or Dodgers to snap him up, fix his launch angle and turn him into a platoon god.