The Angels added veteran help to their bullpen Thursday, announcing the signing of left-hander Matt Moore to a one-year, $7.55MM contract. Right-hander Davis Daniel, who’s dealing with a shoulder strain, was placed on the 60-day injured list to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Moore is represented by Apex Baseball.
Moore began his career in 2011 as a starting pitcher for the Rays and pitched effectively, even earning an All Star appearance and down-ballot Cy Young award votes in 2013. Unfortunately, Moore missed most of the 2014 season after receiving Tommy John surgery, and struggled to remain effective as a starter following the procedure. In 557 2/3 innings across the 2014-19 seasons, Moore struggled to a 5.08 ERA (83 ERA+) while spending time as a member of the Rays, Giants, Rangers, and Tigers.
These struggles led Moore to Japan, where he pitched well as a reliever during the 2020 season. In 2021, he returned to stateside ball, but struggled once again in a swing role for the Phillies, posting a 6.29 ERA (67 ERA+) in 73 innings. The following offseason, Moore had to settle for a minor league contract with the Rangers, who he had previously pitched for during the 2018 season. That minors deal proved to be a stroke of genius by the Rangers front office, as Moore posted an astonishing 1.95 ERA (203 ERA+) across 74 innings in 2022.
Moore’s extreme success last season wasn’t entirely supported by his peripherals. He allowed a BABIP of just .257, nearly 40 points below his career norms, and his FIP came in more than a full run higher than his ERA. That same FIP is still a strong 2.98, however, and many underlying metrics reveal plenty of reason for optimism about Moore’s future headed into his age-34 season. His fastball gained an average of 1.5 mph in velocity in 2022, which allowed Moore to rack up far more strikeouts than he had previously. In 2021, Moore struck out just 18.9% of batters faced, but 2022 saw that figure climb all the way to 27.3%.
In addition, his began to allow much weaker contact in 2022, with his hard contact rate dropping from 35.5% all the way to 22.5% while his soft contact rate leapt from 14.3% up to 22%. Striking out batters at a clip similar to that of Luis Castillo (27.2% strikeout rate) while generating nearly as much weak contact as Max Scherzer (22.7% soft contact rate) is certainly a recipe for success, so it’s easy to see why the Angels would want to add Moore to their mix at the back of a bullpen that currently features Carlos Estevez, Ryan Tepera, and Aaron Loup among its top options.
With that being said, the Halos are almost certainly hoping they can find a way to help their new reliever limit his walks. Moore’s walk rate of 12.5% was third worst in the majors among all pitchers with at least 70 innings pitched, ahead of just Yusei Kikuchi and Caleb Smith. Moore’s sensational 2022 proves that if you can strike batters out at an elevated clip while limiting hard contact it’s still possible to have success even when you walk too many batters, as does the success of pitchers like Jorge Lopez and Dylan Cease. Nonetheless, Moore’s penchant for allowing free passes puts more pressure on the rest of his skills to hold up at their current top-tier levels if he’s going to remain among the best relievers in the game, as he was in 2022.
Moore’s signing continues what has been a fairly aggressive offseason from the Angels. While the club didn’t sign a marquee free agent or swing a blockbuster trade, they’ve added much-needed depth to a roster that already had plenty of star power and made important upgrades to almost every position on the roster. Moore and fellow free-agent acquisition Estevez strengthen the bullpen, while the signing of Tyler Anderson improves the rotation. Meanwhile, the lineup is bolstered by the additions of Hunter Renfroe, Gio Urshela, and Brandon Drury.
The Halos still have an uphill battle in the AL West this year, as the 2022 World Series champion Astros don’t appear to be slowing down, the Mariners are still on the upswing, and the Rangers had a second straight offseason full of splashy additions. Nonetheless, it’s clear that Moore makes the Angels better, even in spite of his age, walk rate, and lacking track record prior to 2022. If he manages to have a season resembling the one he had last year again, it’s easy to see a world where Angels fans no longer miss old closer Raisel Iglesias, who was sent to Atlanta at last year’s trade deadline.
Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic first reported the Angels and Moore were nearing an agreement. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported it was a one-year contract.
Nice they can be so intimate
I hear Careless Whisper by George Michael in the background of the contract signing.
RIP Tim McCarver can’t believe no article on it
That news just messed me up 🙁
Anyway he can start for them?
Nearing dear
Oh dear!
Another guy the Reds should have gone after.
That bullpen is going to be pathetic outside Diaz, and there won’t be many save opportunities if the other guys keep blowing leads like last season.
I feel bad for Greene, Lodolo, and Ashcroft. They’ll never reach their potential like this.
The Reds priority #1 needs to be a better owner.
I feel bad for Greene, Lodolo, and Ashcroft.
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I have no problem with tanking, but this is where you need to do some anti-tanking.
For all the talk about the Orioles, I think a core of Greene, Lodolo, Ashcroft, Diaz, Stephenson & India are about as good as it gets. And they still have a couple of okay MLB pieces and a decent farm.
At a minimum, the Reds should’ve done what the RS did and buy themselves a BP. Same as the Angels.
The Reds have no reason to go after anyone right now. Their goal should be do their best to land the #1 draft pick and trade anyone with current value for future value.
Adding marginal players to a terrible roster will allow them to win 68 games instead of 64 – woohoo!
If you’re going to be bad, make sure you get yourself the best shot at the first pick in the draft.
The #1 pick is now decided by a lottery. The worst record does not mean the #1 pick.
By his phrasing, I inferred he knew that.
Correct – give yourself the best shot = higher percentage in lottery.
Yes, because if I’ve learned anything from 60 years of watching baseball, it’s that the first pick is a guaranteed generational player unanimous first ballot Hall of Famer, while everyone after that is a slug, doomed to, at best, a short unproductive career.
Yes, I like, commas, especially.
So within reason, and knowing their owner won’t spend significant $, what would you like the Reds to do to bring them to be a 85-90 win team?
will allow them to win 68 games instead of 64 – woohoo!
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1-At some point, you need to establish more of a winning culture. You won’t go from 60 to 90.
2-Adding 3-4 RPs not only adds wins, but it also gives you some trading capital at the deadline.
People forget it’s a balanced schedule now, and teams in the Central (In both leagues actually) will probably win the division with 86-87 wins. The NL Central is especially weak this year.
The Reds might not win the division but they need to start winning some games to keep the fan base they have left. Butts in seats equal more revenue for small markets. They need all they can get to compete with folks like the Yankees whose YES contracts pay for salaries alone and then some.
Reds aren’t going to spend 7.5 million on a 34 year relief pitcher with one good year. Angels shouldn’t either. That’s a pretty big overpay. But Reds are not contending this year and this contract will be hard to trade this summer without paying too.
I don’t like the Moore signing, but there were plenty of other affordable RPs out there.
I still have no idea why the Rangers didn’t trade Moore at last season’s deadline. It was clear early that their season was going absolutely nowhere and there was a high probability Moore wouldn’t stick around in ’23. The Rangers are now at 6 straight losing seasons and a roaster loaded with really expensive 30+ year olds with horrible health histories. Joke of a franchise.
Always laugh at the consistent influx of articles that tout strikeout increases by pitchers in the game especially over the last couple of years…..is it possible that strikeout increases by pitchers almost across the board are aided by hitters who swing from their heels and don’t fear the strikeout any longer seeking the long ball metrics we’re bombarded with during every game…..while there may be pitchers who have gained overall strikeouts by either velocity or “stuff” gains, batters certainly have aided the overall metrics given the new approach of not worrying about hitting .235 any longer when you have 20+ home runs!
Velocity has definitely increased. Pitchers are also being babied into throwing 5 innings over 7 slightly worse innings.
Even with the mass increase in strikeouts, Moore was 20% above average in K/9 and 23% above average in K%.
Comparitively, exactly how much did strikeouts increase which I believe would drastically decrease that percentage.
Watching him with Phillies, I’m surprised that he had that much success in 2022. His “stuff” looks average at best.
I figure Zack Britton will go to the Mets now since the Angels were the favorites to sign him.
I don’t know about favorites, but there was definite interest. I was kind of hoping for Britton, but my judgement is based on prior years of success.
Now I’m hoping Moore has more in the tank and can repeat last years success.
My guess, and it’s just a guess. If Britton looked good, they wood have signed him instead of Moore.
Completely agreed.
No they woodn’t. Lol. 11 not really known as a prolific writer.
The Angels will probably use him as swing man. He pitched great last year in strictly a reliever’s role. Moore has struggled in the swing man role. If they use him as a swing man, I don’t really like this move. Keep him in the role he did well with last year.
No, the Angels will use Moore strictly out of the bullpen could be a left hand specialist, or you could get right handers out and left handers out
Why would the Angels use Moore as a swingman when he’s struggled in that role? The Angels don’t need a swingman– they have Barria, who thrived in that role and they have pitchers like Silseth, Canning and Rodriguez that could all be swingmen when the team wants to add a starter. Don’t overthink it– they added another productive arm to the bullpen and that’s how they’ll use him. This gets this team closer to 90 wins.
I am not overthinking it. The reality is the Angels do need a swing man. I think they will look for around 15 starts. Silseth and Canning are better off being part of a regular rotation and for this reason, I believe they will start in the minors and start every 5th day. Barria and Moore are the likely candidates. Barria has had success as both a starter and reliever. The Angels were reluctant to use Barria as a swing man last year. The Angels would bring up anyone and everyone to start rather than have Barria start last year. I hope they keep Moore as a bullpen arm, but I am not certain.’
GoogleMe, most of your stuff is pretty solid, but u missed the boat here. Moore will be a high leveraged Lefty out of the pen.
I hear ya, but being a swingman is not why they signed Moore. He’ll be a set up man at the end of the game who can go two innings. I agree that Silseth and Cannning should be in the minors, but the point is that the Angels will use someone other than Moore in that role. They’ve signed a lot of experienced arms for triple-A that will allow them to add arms when they want to eat some innings.
He has less warts than Quijada and Loup. You don’t like pitchers who walk guys, and although he’s not a ground ball pitcher, he may be able to keep the ball in the park. He checks the other boxes.
But I’m more optimistic since I read a post letting me know they signed Bill Hezel from Driveline. Ohtani went to Driveline. Hezel gives me reason for optimism. Can get the most out of pitchers.
YES!!! I was hoping the Angels would go after him. Now forget the haters and sign Bauer.
Should be a decent addition, even with some regression.
Who is the Angels closer?
I think they want it to Estevez. There are pitchers with warts and there are pitchers who are all warts. Estevez is the latter. They are hoping Coors is the reason Estevez has poor peripherals.
Time will tell.
I could see Estevez grabbing the role. His K and walk rates were much stronger away from Coors. Or, bullpen by committee?
Last season he was OK away from Coors. I wouldn’t call that a great endorsement. But unlike the past, the Angels have hired someone who knows what he is doing, so there is hope.
They are not doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the same results.
Closer by committee. Estevez, Herget, and Tepera before this signing. .
With all the press this guy has gotten, I almost forgot about his disastrous turn in the Phillies rotation in ’22….
But good for him….He’s got his 10yr in and over 26 million…..and at 34 this year he should still have a few yrs left…..
He came back to life last year with that fastball
I care about fastball velocity, but I’m not enamored with it. His fastball velocity is below average. But it moves and it is hard to hit.
“Moore posted an astonishing 1.95 ERA (203 ERA+) across 74 innings in 2022.”
Maybe I missed it but was that success in the majors or in the minors?
Majors. He has two warts, control and his ground ball rate. But the second wart may not be an issue. His fastball is hard to hit and the fly balls might be soft fly balls. I haven’t looked deep enough.
i tend not to trust walk year heroics.
An improvement of 1.5 mph per pitch is huge, man. Especially coming from left side. He’s certainly not a big power arm but he’s right on par with Robbie Ray fastball velo now; for example. The difference between 91 and 95 could be much greater than you think. To go with the good movement he’s always had, yeah I like him for the next couple years for sure.
Really like this signing. The bullpen needed help. Probably still does.
Still think Eric Torres comes up this year. He’s another lefty.
And Ben Joyce and his 105 mph fastball. We should be reminded that Perry worked on building bullpens in ATL.
Joyce, Murphy and Torrez will all need some more work in the minors, but all three have a real shot at making their debuts this season. Joyce needs more control and a better secondary pitch– spring training should help him a lot in both pursuits.
Ben Joyce will get the first call up. Maybe out of camp. Rodriguez is healthy and no one is saying if he will return to the rotation or get sent to the pen, but we know he will be on major league roster. . .
Joyce will get the best shot on camp.
Torres was nails in AA last year. If Loup or Quijada struggle, he’s there.
Got to love their name, Rocket City Trash Pandas.
Torres was fantastic. 1.59 ERA, 14.3 K/9. He walked too many 4.1 per 9, but his k/bb ratio was still good. I am sure he will get called up as soon as there is an injury or someone struggles.
HalosHeavenJJ – I think Joyce is in the same boat as Neno. They both have a shot to make it this year, but I think it might take a lot to skip at least some games at AAA. They both have played looked amazing even though they where pushed to AA in there 1st taste of pro ball. I think Neto might be even a little more seasoned than Joyce. Joyce was not used as predominately as Neto in college and got slightly less experience at the pro level. 147 at bats to 13 innings. There also might be more need ss if he looks like he’s ready enough.
We want more!
Nice signing.
If the Angels luck holds true to form Moore will become less very quickly
Teams make their own luck by hunkering down and do good scouting, drafting, mentoring and preparing. Teams that have more injuries or regressing players over a prolonged period of time are not unlucky, just bad. I say this and the Angels are my fourth favorite team after Cubs, Dodgers and A’s.
There’s still plenty of luck in it but your point holds true
I’d wonder how lucky last year was for Moore. Only the second time in the past ten years he had a season of more than a couple appearances where he registers at least a 100 ERA+. 2013 and 2022. That’s quite a gap of demonstrating high performance.
Accordingly it’s a one year deal. I wonder what the Rangers were asking for him at last year’s deadline? A lot of teams probably have doubts which version of Moore they will get, but that doesn’t stop the Angels from showing they are thirsty for pitching.
RSox. The Angels signed the director of Driveline. I have hope.
They’ve had some success so that can only help the Angels in the long run
You mean like the Red Sox?
“Ooh, good comeback Potsie”
You must be from Revere!
witty…but hopefully luck will begin to even out for the Halos and he’ll perform more or less like he did in 2022.
Nice pickup. Bullpens are becoming more important every season. The Angels have a decent starting staff but they will need a ton of help all year. They could use a couple more guys that can shorten the games.
I think the Cardinals are going to regret not going after bargains like Chafin and Moore. They’re a playoff team, and they’re currently relying on G. Cabrera, Misiewicz, Thompson and others with even less experience.
Chafin got $6.5MM, which is pretty up there for a non closer, and they haven’t yet posted what Moore was able to get. So what “bargains” are you referring to?
$7.55M feels a little expensive. He was pretty bad from 2017-2021, and injured. Even in 2022, he had a 4.6 BB9. Even his K/W was only 2.18. His BABIP, LOB%, and HR/FB seem ripe for regression.
I’d rather have Chaffin, but I’m not complaining.
Moore could be the next Andy Hassler.He like Hassler is a big lefty with great stuff who became a pretty good reliever after up and down yrs as a starter.Angel fans should like this move.
Mr Barry- I too remember Hassler pitching great as a reliever. Hassler the LH and Don Aase the RH out of the pen for Gene March. Then Aase and Fred Lynn high tailed it to Baltimore in 85.
The Angels need at least 10 starters to remain competitive over a 162 game season! 5 starters plus Canning Bush and Rodrigues is not enough! Sign Bauer who U get for practically nothing salary wise and this team has the potential to go all the way! Ohtani, Anderson and Bauer make a strong playoff rotation! When U haven’t been in the post season in forever whatever negatives the Bauer signing create will be quickly forgotten if the team wins!
Another short term deal that will incrementally help the Angels. I sure hope he can repeat 2022 for us before he moves on.
Angels should have signed Chaplin verses Moore! More pro in track record and for $1.25 million less!
Charlie Chaplin is alive? And he plays bazeball?
Troutahni – He didn’t say Charlie (what a curve). He thinks with all the injuries and bad luck we should hire a team chaplin_.t_. I think you can get one for a lot cheaper, unless he says you need to donate millions if you want to change things. Perry went and got Moore relief pitching and he will.
Yes, he speaks softly and carries a big walking stick.
Moore gets more than Chafin for one good year? Say whaaat
These have been a bunch of neat moves by The Angels this off season. They have plenty of star power and didn’t need a big name; they just needed a tonne of depth and a hitting roster that doesn’t fall off a boat after the 4th hitter.
Mistake!
Now the staff looks something like this:
Ohtani
Anderson
Sandoval
Detmers
Suarez
Barria
Davidson
Herget
Quijada
Loup
Tepera
Moore
Estevez
Unless the Angels decide on another option besides Davidson, or just add another swing man in his stead, this is probably it. Not bad. Roles are more defined than in recent years.
Too many left handed pitchers.
Canning and some others at Salt Lake for sixth man swing options. You’ve got to believe Barria will pitch sometimes as a 6th man option in long consecutive games without a break.
I noticed last season that Barria really earned the trust of Phil Nevin making me believe he will use him in a multitude of times and will not hesitate to bring him in at any juncture of the game.
Many people will scoff when i say Jaime Barria is a major key to the success of this season. He could also be traded in a package to pick up a SS.
If Chris Rodriguez is healthy they might call him up to get crucial outs in relief. He has the stuff to get on a strikeout roll in dominating a game.
Many fans, not prognosticators, don’t realize that the Angels may potentially pass the Stros with their pitching. The Angels have the market cornered with Lefties.
If your team has trouble with Lefties you definitely will not be looking forward to facing the Angels this season.
The As we’re the 3rd worst team facing lefties in batting average, hitting. 220.
Seattle was 8th worst at. 233.
Texas team ba. Of. 246
Astros hit at. 261.
I can’t wait for the Angels to face Milwaukee at the end of April.
I see 3 series sweeps for the Angels in April.
I predict the Angels will be 20-7 after April. It gets much harder in May and see the Angels going. 500 in June, July, and August.
A good month in September will put the Angels’ record at 95 wins and 67 losses, which will be close to the borderline of qualifying for the playoffs.
I hope you’r right about everything. I think they will hit really good this year I also think they make the post season. I think 95 wins will be easily a playoff spot. maybe 2nd most in AL. there are a lot of teams that could have wining records.
Wantz is an arm I’d rather carry over Davidson. Davidson looked awful last season. I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets DFA’d early into the season or bury him in triple-A.
Moore got paid ! Nice job waiting it out !
Angels back on the prowl for Andrus now?
I am not sure how much better he is than what we have. At the very least we have Soto and probably we will see Neto sometime in 23.