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Reyes Moronta

Players Recently Electing Free Agency

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As the offseason gets underway, players around baseball continue to elect minor league free agency.  While the threshold for big league free agency (six-plus years of Major League service time) is well known, there are several methods of qualifying for minor league free agency.  The most common criteria: players with 3+ years of MLB service time who have been outrighted off their teams’ 40-man rosters this season, players who have been outrighted off a 40-man roster multiple times in their career, or unsigned players not on a 40-man roster who have spent parts of at least seven seasons on a minor league roster or injured list.

Each of these players has recently hit the open market in the last few days, according to the official transactions pages for both Triple-A East and Triple-A West.

Giants Outright Reyes Moronta

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The Giants announced Tuesday that right-hander Reyes Moronta has cleared outright waivers and been assigned to Triple-A Sacramento. He’s no longer on the 40-man roster.

It’s a bit of a surprising move on a number of levels. San Francisco didn’t formally designate Moronta for assignment, so there was no public indication prior to this announcement that he’d been placed on waivers and made available to the other 29 teams. Beyond that, Moronta once looked like a future high-leverage option for the Giants, though he’s seen several miles drop off his fastball since returning from surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder late in the 2019 season.

From 2017-19, Moronta pitched 128 1/3 innings out of the Giants’ bullpen, working to a 2.66 ERA with a strong 29.8 percent strikeout rate. His 13.6 percent walk rate was well north of the league average and a clear area for potential improvement, but Moronta’s average fastball velocity of 97.1 mph and that lofty strikeout rate were obvious sources of intrigue for what he could become with better command of his pitches. President of baseball ops Farhan Zaidi even suggested last season during Moronta’s recovery that he had closer potential.

That surgery indeed wiped out all of Moronta’s 2020 season, and he missed  a good portion of the current campaign rehab with a flexor strain. He didn’t require surgery this time around, but Moronta was only activated from the 60-day injured list late last month. He hasn’t pitched particularly well since coming off the IL, either, working to a 7.98 ERA with more walks (18) than strikeouts (13) through 14 2/3 frames of Triple-A ball.

The decision to remove Moronta from the 40-man roster could very well spell the end of his time with the organization. Players with more than three years of MLB service who are outrighted off the 40-man roster during the season can become free agents at the end of the year. It’s technically possible that the Giants could add Moronta back to the 40-man between now and that point, but if that were in the plans, they probably wouldn’t have placed him on waivers in the first place.

In 132 1/3 innings at the big league level, Moronta has a 2.65 ERA and 3.44 FIP with a 29.5 percent strikeout rate and a 13.3 percent walk rate.

Giants Place Anthony DeSclafani, Evan Longoria On IL

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The Giants have placed Anthony DeSclafani and Evan Longoria on the IL, per a team announcement. Longoria is going on the COVID IL because of vaccine side effects, per Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic. DeSclafani’s placement, retroactive to August 19th, is due to right ankle inflammation. The two roster spots will be taken by lefty Sammy Long and righty Jay Jackson. Additionally, Reyes Moronta was activated from his rehab assignment and optioned to Triple-A.

For Longoria, he should be able to return in a day or two, once he feels better. (The COVID IL has no minimum stay.) The loss of DeSclafani, however, is the more worrisome news for the Giants as he has been a solid member of the rotation this season. After a down year with Cincinnati in 2020, San Fran scooped him up for a one-year, $6MM deal, getting tremendous value for that outlay. Desclafani’s tally of 132 2/3 innings is second only to Kevin Gausman on the club this year. His ERA of 3.26 over that span is the 14th-best mark in all of MLB. He’s recently hit a bit of a snag, however, going on the IL for the second time this month. He endured a minimum stay starting August 4th because of shoulder fatigue and will now go back on the shelf because of this ankle inflammation.

It’s unclear how long the hurler is expected to be sidelined, but even another minimum stay will be impactful. After an off-day on Monday, the Giants will enter a stretch of playing 16 days in a row. They are also without Johnny Cueto, who recently went on the IL himself, whittling the rotation down to Gausman, Logan Webb and Alex Wood. This all comes as the Dodgers have crept up on the Giants in the standings, narrowing the gap to 1 1/2 games going into today’s action.

Sammy Long will likely slot into the rotation at some point during the next few weeks. He’s just recently been getting stretched out after his own IL stint but was able to throw five innings in his most recent Triple-A start. In eight games at the MLB level this year, four starts, he’s absorbed 28 1/3 innings with an elevated ERA of 5.72, but more a more palatable 3.84 xERA, 3.96 SIERA and 3.63 FIP.

Cueto is eligible to return at any point now, though it’s unclear if that’s expected. Without him, the club may have to turn to its depth, though that also just took a hit with Tyler Beede being placed on the 60-day IL just a few days ago. The Giant signed Matt Shoemaker to a minor league deal a few weeks back, though he’s having a nightmare season. Released by the Twins after posting an ERA north of 8.00, his time in the Giants’ org hasn’t improved things. In a small sample of three appearances with the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats, his ERA is 9.45.

Giants Claim Braden Bishop

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The Giants have claimed outfielder Braden Bishop off waivers from the Mariners, Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area tweets. They shifted reliever Reyes Moronta to the 60-day injured list in a corresponding move, per Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group.

The 27-year-old Bishop is returning to his native Bay Area and joining the same organization as his brother, Hunter, a fellow outfielder and the 10th overall pick of the Giants in the 2019 draft. Hunter Bishop hasn’t reached the majors yet, but Braden Bishop has taken 99 plate appearances at the sport’s highest level. He only hit .133/.188/.156 as a Mariner, leading the team to designate him for assignment last week.

Despite his struggles in the bigs, Bishop has at least a couple things working in his favor. For one, he still has a minor league option left, so the Giants can call him up and send him down at their leisure for the rest of the season. And Bishop has shown that he can handle Triple-A pitching, having batted .267/.355/.465 in 231 PA there.

Giants Notes: La Stella, Yaz, Moronta, Crawford, Solano

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Tommy La Stella will receive an MRI on his left hamstring and “may be down for a bit” with an injury, Giants manager Gabe Kapler told The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly and other reporters following today’s 7-1 win over the Padres.  La Stella pulled up while running home to score on an RBI grounder from Wilmer Flores in the fifth inning, and he was replaced in the field in the bottom half of the inning.

It brought a sour end to one of La Stella’s best days in a Giants uniform, as the second baseman was 2-for-3 (singled and tripled) with two RBI and two runs scored.  Since signing a three-year, $18.75MM free agent deal with San Francisco during the offseason, La Stella was scuffling in the early going with his new team, hitting only .235/.297/.353 in his first 75 plate appearances.

Unfortunately, it seems like he’ll be set back with a visit to the 10-day injured list, joining Donovan Solano as another Giants infielder on the mend.  A right calf strain shelved Solano back on April 21, and Kapler didn’t yet have a timeline about when the infielder could be back in action.

However, the manager’s pregame chat with reporters (including John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle) did provide more positive updates on a pair of injured Giants, such as another infield name in Brandon Crawford.  The shortstop is still day-to-day after suffering a bruised left calf when hit by a pitch on Friday’s game, and though Crawford didn’t play in today’s game, Kapler indicated that Crawford was a possibility to be used as a late-game sub.  This would indicate that Crawford might be ready to roll as early as Monday, when the Giants begin a road series against the Rockies in Denver.

Mike Yastrzemski might not be far behind, as Kapler thinks the outfielder might return from the IL after the 10-day minimum.  Yastrzemski suffered a mild oblique strain on April 25 but the team was initially hopeful he could avoid the injured list entirely before finally sending him to the IL with a backdated April 26 placement.  If “Yaz” is indeed able to return as soon as possible, he would be eligible for the Giants’ May 7 game against the Padres.

The news isn’t as good for Reyes Moronta, who is undergoing examination after feeling forearm tightness on Saturday.  Moronta was warming up as part of his rehab from a right flexor strain, and after missing the entire 2020 season due to shoulder surgery, Moronta pitched in only four games in 2021 before being sidelined once more.  Moronta has shown some promise when he has been able to pitch, posting a 2.65 ERA and 29.5% strikeout rate over 132 1/3 innings out of San Francisco’s bullpen since the start of the 2017 season.

West Notes: Rendon, Gonsolin, Moronta, Wade

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Anthony Rendon is dealing with a sore left groin, Angels manager Joe Maddon told reporters (including Fabian Ardaya of the Athletic and Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times). Maddon doesn’t expect Rendon to play in tomorrow evening’s game against the Royals, and it isn’t out of the question the star third baseman could require a stint on the injured list. The always-productive Rendon is off to a strong start to the 2021 season, with nine hits (including a home run) and five walks over his first 37 plate appearances.

More out of the game’s West divisions:

  • According to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, Tony Gonsolin’s return is “a ways away for me with where he’s at.”  Roberts told Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register and other reporters that Gonsolin had yet to begin a throwing program since being placed on the 10-day injured list last Sunday.  Gonsolin is sidelined with shoulder inflammation that began to bother the right-hander around Opening Day, which was why he didn’t get any game action prior to his IL placement.
  • Before today’s game against the Rockies, the Giants placed reliever Reyes Moronta on the 10-day injured list with a right flexor strain, Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group was among those to note. While that sounds ominous, especially since Moronta missed the entire 2020 season recovering from shoulder surgery, manager Gabe Kapler said it’s a minor strain (via Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle). To replace the right-hander on the active roster, the Giants recalled LaMonte Wade Jr. Acquired from the Twins over the offseason, Wade went 2-4 with a walk in his Giants’ debut this afternoon.

Giants Outright Three Players

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The Giants announced a series of roster moves today (via Maria Guardado of MLB.com). Right-handers Tyler Beede and Reyes Moronta, outfielder Joey Rickard and catcher Aramís García were all reinstated from the 60-day injured list. Rickard cleared outright waivers and was assigned to Triple-A Sacramento. As a player with more than three years of MLB service, Rickard can choose to reject the assignment and become a free agent.

Also clearing outright waivers were catcher Tyler Heineman and left-hander Anthony Banda. Like Rickard, both players had the right to hit the open market. Banda, though, has already agreed to a new minor-league deal with San Francisco.

Rickard, a former Oriole Rule 5 pick, was limited to six plate appearances in 2020. He’s a career .246/.300/.371 hitter. Heineman has taken 62 uninspiring trips to the plate over the past two seasons but amassed a solid resume in the high minors. Once a well-regarded prospect in the Diamondbacks’ and Rays’ systems, Banda has been limited by injuries to 51.1 innings across four MLB seasons. The southpaw has a career 5.96 ERA/3.67 FIP. San Francisco’s 40-man roster sits at 37 players.

Giants Notes: Gausman, Moronta, Baragar

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The Giants are facing a great deal of uncertainty in their rotation as they head into free agency. Right-hander Kevin Gausman, by far their most effective starter in 2020, is slated to return to the open market in the coming weeks. The Giants bought relatively low on the former Oriole, Brave and Red last offseason on a $9MM pact, and he then proceeded to post a 3.62 ERA/3.09 FIP with 11.92 K/9 against 2.41 BB/9 in 59 2/3 innings. Gausman may now be the second-best pending free-agent starter in the game, trailing only the Reds’ Trevor Bauer, and looks like a lock for a lucrative deal. In the meantime, the Giants will have to decide whether to issue a qualifying offer worth $18.9MM to the 29-year-old Gausman, though it seems “unlikely” they’ll do that, Maria Guardado of MLB.com writes. The Gausman case is one we at MLBTR have discussed at length in recent days, and we do expect him to receive a qualifying offer, in part because free agency will feature so few starters with front-of-the-rotation potential after Bauer. But in the event Gausman’s not tied to a QO, it would only make him and his 95 mph fastball more appealing on the market.

Here’s more from San Francisco…

  • Guardado’s piece also includes a look at potential non-tender candidates for the Giants. Left-hander Tyler Anderson, outfielder Joey Rickard and infielder Daniel Robertson comprise the group. Anderson seems the likeliest for the starter-needy Giants to retain, as he turned in a useful 4.37 ERA/4.36 FIP over 59 2/3 innings this year; moreover, he shouldn’t be in line for a substantial raise over his $1.78MM salary. On the other hand, Rickard and Robertson didn’t play significant roles for the Giants, combining for just 30 plate appearances, so the team could go in another direction.
  • Right-hander Reyes Moronta was one of the Giants’ go-to relievers from 2017-19, but he missed all of this year after undergoing shoulder surgery at the end of last season. Moronta was working his way back this past summer, but the Giants never brought him up. President of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi explained why, saying (via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area): “He was throwing at the alternate site and we just didn’t see him really getting over the hump and showing the kind of stuff that we saw from him last year. It was really as much a medical assessment as a performance assessment.” Still, Zaidi noted that San Francisco has “high hopes” when it comes to the soon-to-be 28-year-old Moronta, who averaged 97.2 mph on his fastball in 2019. Zaidi hasn’t ruled out Moronta evolving into the Giants’ answer at closer, which is something they lacked during a 2020 effort that fell just shy of a playoff berth, as John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle observes.
  • Reliever Caleb Baragar has hired Wasserman for representation, MLBTR has learned. The left-handed Baragar, a 2016 ninth-round pick who’s now 26 years old, made his major league debut this season. He concluded the campaign with 22 1/3 innings of 4.03 ERA/4.04 FIP pitching and 7.66 K/9 against 2.01 BB/9.

Injury Notes: JV, McCullers, Hoskins, Moronta, Chafin

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Justin Verlander has continued to progress in his late-season comeback effort, as Jake Kaplan of The Athletic writes. The veteran hurler isn’t yet ready to return to the Astros rotation, of course, but he has now faced live hitters in a two-inning sim game. It’s still unclear how things will progress from here. The club would surely like to get JV a regular-season appearance before the season concludes, but it’s also possible he’d make his first start in the postseason. Meanwhile, the ’Stros have now welcomed back fellow right-hander Lance McCullers from his own stay on the injured list, as Mark Berman of FOX 26 was among those to tweet. It turned out to be a brief stay for McCullers, who had a procedure to relieve neck nerve irritation. He’ll look to improve upon a 5.79 ERA through his first eight outings.

Here are some more injury notes from around the league …

  • Phillies first bagger Rhys Hoskins is still in limbo as he deals with an elbow/foream issue. As Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia reports on Twitter, the burly slugger is holding out hope of a return even while the threat of a season-ending surgery hangs over his head. When and how this situation will be resolved isn’t yet clear. Losing Hoskins would represent a big dent to the Phils’ lineup. He has to this point of the season turned in a productive .245/.384/.503 slash line with ten long balls.
  • It seems the Giants could yet get a bullpen boost from right-hander Reyes Moronta. He’s ready for competitive mound action at the team’s alternate training site, Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area notes on Twitter. Moronta has been building up after undergoing shoulder surgery, so the club won’t want to push him too hard. But it’s enticing to imagine adding another postseason weapon, particularly since Moronta is said to be showing typically strong velocity. Jeff Samardzija is also nearing readiness, with a five-inning set scheduled. It’s unclear what role may await for the veteran once he’s deemed a full go. He coughed up 15 earned runs in 13 2/3 innings over his first three starts on the year.
  • The Cubs haven’t yet received a contribution from recently acquired southpaw Andrew Chafin, but that may soon change. The 30-year-old reliever, who was nursing a finger sprain when he was dealt at the trade deadline, is close enough that he could be activated over the next few days, skipper David Ross indicated to reporters including Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune (Twitter link). Chafin had struggled to open the year in Arizona, but he’d represent a notable addition to a bullpen that has had its share of issues, especially from the left side.

West Notes: Hosmer, Rangers, Rockies, Giants

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There’s a “very good chance” the Padres will activate first baseman Eric Hosmer from the injured list Saturday, manager Jayce Tingler told AJ Cassavell of MLB.com and other reporters. Hosmer has been out since July 28 with gastritis, which cut off an encouraging start to the season in which he was hitting more fly balls than ever and getting tremendous results. The Padres have mostly turned to Jake Cronenworth at first in Hosmer’s absence, and the rookie has been excellent in the early going.

  • The Rangers announced that they’ve activated righty Rafael Montero and placed lefty Joe Palumbo on the IL with an ulcerative colitis flareup. Montero hasn’t pitched this season, but as MLBTR’s Steve Adams explained in April, he has been a real find for the club. The former standout Mets prospect amassed 29 innings of 2.48 ERA pitching with 10.55 K/9 against 1.55 BB/9 in his first year with the Rangers last season.
  • The Rockies placed RHP Chi Chi Gonzalez on the IL on Friday with right biceps tendinitis and recalled fellow righty Ryan Castellani, per a team announcement. Gonzalez has made one start for the club this year, but he yielded three earned runs during that three-inning performance. Castellani, meanwhile, ranks as Colorado’s 18th overall prospect at MLB.com. He’s finally in line to make his Rockies debut six years after the team selected him in the second round of the 2014 draft. Castellani struggled to an 8.31 ERA with 9.76 K/9 and 6.23 BB/9 in 43 1/3 innings in his first Triple-A action last year.
  • Righty Reyes Moronta and outfielder Hunter Bishop have reported to the Giants’ alternate site, the club announced. Moronta’s continuing to work back from right shoulder surgery, while Bishop has been down since late June because of a positive coronavirus test. Bishop is now a part of the Giants’ 60-man player pool. There’s a chance Moronta will get into the Giants’ bullpen this season, manager Gabe Kapler said (via John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle). Moronta has been highly effective since he debuted in 2017, having recorded a 2.66 ERA/3.38 FIP with 11.22 K/9 and 5.12 BB/9 across 128 1/3 innings.
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