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Reyes Moronta

Reyes Moronta Undergoes Shoulder Surgery

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TODAY: Moronta’s recovery period is expected to last roughly 11 months, Bruce Bochy told Crowley and other reporters.

Sept. 11: Moronta’s surgery actually went a bit better than expected, tweets Kerry Crowley of the San Jose Mercury News. While Moronta’s labrum was damaged and repaired, his shoulder capsule did not need repair.

Sept. 9: Giants reliever Reyes Moronta is slated to undergo surgery on his right shoulder labrum, the club informed reporters including MLB.com’s Maria Guardado (Twitter link). The procedure will end his 2019 season and send him on a lengthy rehabilitation process that will surely extend well into the ensuing campaign.

Shoulder procedures are laden with risk for pitchers, so this is rather concerning news. That said, plenty have made their way back to being quality major-leaguers after going under the knife. The details of the injury, the work that’ll ultimately be done, and the course of rehab will all play into the odds in ways we can’t accurately gauge given what’s known at present.

Moronta has been a major part of the San Francisco relief corps since first reaching the bigs late in 2017. Through 128 1/3 total innings, he owns a 2.66 ERA with 11.2 K/9 and 5.1 BB/9. While that walk rate obviously isn’t optimal, Moronta has limited the damage by tamping down on long balls (0.63 HR/9, 7.0 HR/FB%) to this point in his career.

This injury represents a blow not only to the Giants’ 2019 bullpen, but also to Moronta’s earnings outlook. He’ll be a 2+ service-class player next year and will earn service time while sidelined. Barring a stunningly quick return to action, he will not have much of a chance (if any) to compile a platform season in advance of arbitration after the 2020 campaign.

Giants Promote Jaylin Davis

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The Giants announced today that they have selected the contract of outfielder Jaylin Davis. He’ll take the 40-man roster spot of reliever Reyes Moronta, who was placed on the 60-day injured list.

Davis came to the San Francisco organization as part of the deadline deal that sent reliever Sam Dyson to the Twins. The former 25th-rounder was putting up big numbers in the upper minors at the time of the swap but was obviously deemed expendable by the Minnesota organization.

Since changing jerseys, Davis has continued to rake. Over the course of the year, he has posted well-above-average numbers at each stop: a 147 wRC+ at Double-A, 175 wRC+ in the International League, and 160 wRC+ in the Pacific Coast League.

It remains to be seen whether Davis will be able to apply his power consistently enough at the major-league level. But it’ll certainly be fun to see whether he can do so. We’ve seen other under-the-radar slugger types carry forward big upper-minors production into the bigs. If that’s the case for Davis, the Giants could have a steal. He’d have required a 40-man spot in advance of this winter’s Rule 5 draft regardless of today’s move, so there was little reason not to give him his first look now.

Reyes Moronta Suffers Season-Ending Shoulder Injury

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Reyes Moronta’s season is over, as the Giants right-hander has suffered a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder.  (Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle was among those to report the news.)  It isn’t yet known if Moronta will undergo surgery, though it is being considered.

Such an outcome isn’t unexpected given Moronta’s extreme reaction last night upon suffering the injury.  After throwing a pitch to Luis Urias in the sixth inning of last night’s 4-1 Giants loss to the Padres, Moronta fell to the ground in obvious pain, and needed a few minutes to recover before leaving the field.

Depending on the severity of the tear and other details regarding the injury, surgery could potentially keep Moronta on the IL for a very lengthy time, perhaps to the extent of putting his entire 2020 season in jeopardy.  Sean Manaea, Arodys Vizcaino, and Jimmy Nelson are a few recent example of pitchers who underwent similar labrum procedures, with Manaea returning to the mound just today after missing over a year, and Nelson representing more of a worst-case scenario since he missed over a season and a half of action.  Again, it won’t be known if Moronta is looking at a similar timeframe given the specifics of his own tear, though obviously he, the Giants, and the doctors will explore whether or not the injury could heal without surgical intervention.

The news brings an unfortunate end to a second consecutive season of very solid work for Moronta out of the Giants’ bullpen.  The hard-throwing righty posted a 2.86 ERA, 11/1 K/9, and 2.12 K/BB rate over 56 2/3 innings this season, following a 2.49 ERA over 65 frames in 2018.  Walks have been a continual problem for Moronta, as his 5.2 BB/9 is one of the chief reasons advanced metrics are less impressed by his work (3.57 FIP, 4.84 xFIP, 4.30 SIERA this season), though he has done an admirable job of keeping the ball in the park during the homer-happy 2019 season — Moronta’s 6.5 % homer rate is the sixth-lowest of any pitcher in baseball with at least 50 innings pitched this year.

Moronta is a homegrown Giants product, signed out of the Dominican in 2010 as a 17-year-old free agent.  He has worked almost exclusively as a reliever during his pro career, and was in line to assume a larger role in San Francisco’s bullpen given how the Giants already parted ways with some veteran relievers at the trade deadline, and face the potential loss of Will Smith to free agency this winter.

Reyes Moronta Exits With Acute Shoulder Strain

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11:15 pm: Giants manager Bruce Bochy informed reporters, including Crowley, that Moronta has an acute right shoulder strain and that the team believes the pitcher has avoided an elbow injury (link).

10:23 pm: Reporters following tonight’s game between the Giants and Padres were aghast at the sight of Reyes Moronta falling to the ground after delivering a 97.5-mph fastball to San Diego’s Luis Urias. Moronta was removed from the mound with the help of a trainer while clutching his right arm. Kerry Crowley described the optics as “really bad”, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle speculated that Moronta was “seriously hurt”, and Grant Brisbee of The Athletic simply summed up the scene as “awful”.

While more official word will presumably follow the conclusion of tonight’s action, there are surely still some white knuckles around the situation in the Bay Area tonight. At 66-68, the Giants don’t figure to extend their wild midsummer run at the Wild Card, but Moronta has been widely viewed as a major part of the SF bullpen moving forward. Since debuting in 2017, Moronta has used his blazing fastball to subdue hitters with consistency. Over 128.1 innings to this point in his career, the righty owns a 2.66 ERA and an 11.22 K/9 mark–though a lack of strike zone management (5.05 career BB/9) has always threatened to undermine his potential.

The Giants, of course, traded away both Mark Melancon and Sam Dyson at this year’s trade deadline, opening an opportunity for Moronta to continue to slide towards the first chair in the team’s bullpen. Further updates to Moronta’s status will be provided at first opportunity.

Dodgers Notes: Seager, Bullpen Trades, Ryu

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The Dodgers announced today that they’ve activated Corey Seager from the injured list and optioned first baseman/outfielder Matt Beaty to Triple-A Oklahoma City. Seager, 25, will ultimately miss just under a month due to a strained left hamstring. He’ll now rejoin a Dodgers roster that recently welcomed David Freese back from the injured list and is set to get A.J. Pollock back as well. Los Angeles still has a 13.5 game lead on the second-place Diamondbacks and will likely be in an all-the-more commanding position with several key players back to full strength. However, the L.A. front office still has some work to do in the three weeks leading up to the trade deadline. Here’s a look at the latest chatter on the Dodgers…

  • The Dodgers have “varying levels of interest in multiple Giants relievers,” writes MLB.com’s Jon Morosi. Unsurprisingly, Los Angeles harbor some degree of interest in each of Will Smith, Sam Dyson, Tony Watson and Reyes Moronta. That quartet likely appeals to the majority of contending clubs throughout the game, though, and there’s no indication within Morosi’s report that there are any substantive talks between the two sides. The Dodgers are loath to part with any of their top four prospects for a rental reliever, making Gavin Lux, Dustin May, Keibert Ruiz and their own Will Smith unlikely to change hands in any type of deal for one of San Francisco’s short-term assets.
  • If the recent comments from Pirates GM Neal Huntington didn’t sufficiently quash the Dodgers/Felipe Vazquez connection, Morosi writes that Pittsburgh would require “at least two” of the four aforementioned top prospects (Lux, May, Smith, Ruiz) to headline a Vazquez deal. Between that and Huntington’s declaration that the team’s “expectation and anticipation is that Felipe will be closing out playoff games, be it this year or in the future with us,” it doesn’t seem wise to bank on Vazquez landing in Los Angeles (or anywhere else, for that matter).
  • In a more high-level look at the Dodgers’ trade needs, Ken Gurnick of MLB.com points out that the Andrew Friedman-led Dodgers have not been a team that has been willing to deal away its very best prospects, making a high-profile acquisition of Smith, Brad Hand, Vazquez, etc. less likely than some trades to more affordably acquire some second-tier relievers on the market. He suggests that a reunion with Watson or Blue Jays righty Daniel Hudson is more plausible than a marquee splash. (To be clear, those are speculative examples listed by Gurnick rather than specific trades that the Dodgers are actively pursuing.)
  • Hyun-Jin Ryu’s gamble on accepting the qualifying offer made by the Dodgers could prove one of the wisest decisions of the offseason, writes Jorge Castillo of the L.A. Times, who notes that Ryu is now positioned to cash in on a major contract (without the burden of draft compensation, as players can only receive one qualifying offer in their careers). Indeed, over his past 191 1/3 regular-season innings, Ryu has a 1.83 ERA with 8.8 K/9, 1.2 BB/9, 0.89 HR/9 and a 48.6 percent ground-ball rate. More broadly, Castillo’s column is a terrific look at the long road that Ryu took from intriguing high-school prospect coveted by the Dodgers and Twins to 2019 All-Star Game starter. Dodgers fans who have not previously familiarized themselves with Ryu’s path to stardom in the United States will want to be sure to give the story a read-through.

NL West Notes: Dodgers, Stairs, Giants

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Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi tells J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group that Gabe Kapler’s departure to become the Phillies’ new manager now leaves the Dodgers with the onerous task of finding a new person to fill the “toughest job in baseball.” Kapler spent three years as the Dodgers’ director of player development/farm director, and Hoornstra notes that the new ideas he brought to the table have helped the lay the foundation for the team’s current run of success. “You’ve got to be able to relate to a lot of different factions and constituents between the front office, the major league club, major league manager, coaches, players throughout the system, affiliates, minor league players, minor league coaches,” said Zaidi of the unique challenges the role presents. Per Zaidi, the team will be casting a “wide-open net,” and the search could take a few weeks. Hoornstra points out that Jeremy Zoll, Kapler’s top assistant who could have been a leading internal candidate, has already been scooped up by the Twins to serve as their farm director in 2018 and beyond.

More from the NL West…

  • Newly minted Padres hitting coach Matt Stairs plans to bring an emphasis of on-base percentage and selectivity to the lineup, writes MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell. Cassavell notes that Stairs’ famous one-liner, “Swing like you live: hard,” leads to some misconceptions about his philosophy; Stairs doesn’t necessarily preach swinging often but believes in being aggressive when deciding to do so. “I’ve always been a guy that always preaches — even when I wasn’t coaching — about not giving at-bats away, being a stubborn hitter,” said Stairs. “…I’m a firm believer in passing the baton and taking the walk. Let the guy behind you pick you up.” The Padres ranked 25th in MLB with a 7.7 percent walk rate last year and somewhat incredibly finished the season with a sub-.300 OBP as a collective unit, ranking last in the Majors at .299.
  • MLB.com’s Chris Haft writes that young Giants relievers Kyle Crick, Reyes Moronta and Garrett Williams are all likely to get the chance to cement themselves in the 2018 season. Krick, 25 next month, may have the best chance to do so early in the year after already experiencing some success in the second half of the 2017 season, though his 7.8 K/9 and 4.7 BB/9 will need to trend more closely toward his respective Triple-A marks of 12.0 and 4.0. Williams has yet to even pitch in Double-A, but the 23-year-old lefty tore through two Class-A levels last season, and left-handed bullpen help is a need in San Francisco. Of course, the Giants still seem likely to add to the bullpen in some capacity this winter, though with myriad holes to fill throughout the roster, the presence of some internal options will be key.

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