Burly rookie Moronta could be Giants’ closer of the future
SAN FRANCISCO >> As rain poured in his hometown of Santiago in the Dominican Republic, Reyes Moronta realized his big chance was ruined.
Moronta, 17, was awaiting a tryout with the Chicago Cubs and desperate to show his talents off in front of professional scouts.
Mother Nature had other plans.
“It was raining so I couldn’t do anything,” Moronta said through Spanishlanguage translator Erwin Higueros. “So Felix Peguero called me and he said the Giants needed a pitcher and asked me if I wanted to go and try out. At that time, I didn’t even know the Giants existed.”
Moronta knew of the San Francisco Giants, but was unaware the Giants operated a team in the Dominican Summer League.
He scheduled a trip to the Giants’ academy in the Dominican Republic to pitch in front of Peguero, who was then an area scout and is now the Giants’ assistant director of Dominican Republic operations.
Nine years later, Moronta is a burly rookie seizing a major league opportunity and forcing the Giants to consider him for their highest-pressure situations.
While three of the top right-handed international free agents in 2010, including fellow countryman Carlos Martinez, signed deals for $1.5 million or more, the Giants offered Moronta a contract for $15,000.
The decision to sign was not easy for Moronta, who owed his interest in baseball to his father, Francisco. As a child, Moronta said he spent much of his time looking for fights in the streets of Santiago. His dad intervened and drove him to baseball fields, hoping Reyes would strike it rich.
A $15,000 bonus wasn’t what Francisco had in mind.
“I signed anyway,” Reyes said.
In September 2010, weeks before the Giants won the World Series, and a few months before his 18th birthday, Moronta joined the organization.
The overlooked teenager is now a fixture in the Giants bullpen, commanding a deceptive fastball-slider combination that screams “future closer.”
“I think that’s kind of what I want to groom him for,” bullpen coach Matt Herges said. “I want to groom him to be that guy because the stuff is there to do it and so far the mentality has been there.”
Of the 41 major league relievers with at least 35 appearances this season, only seven boast ERAs better than the 2.08 mark Moronta has posted in his rookie year with the Giants.
Herges and Giants manager Bruce Bochy believe Moronta possesses the arsenal to develop into one of baseball’s most trusted relievers because of the way his two most reliable offerings complement each other. Moronta’s fastball averages 96.6 mph while his slider is whiffed at 19.8 percent of the time he throws it.
“He’s got tremendous stuff,” Mark Melancon, a three-time All-Star signed to fill the role to which Moronta now aspires, said. “Even just looking at his numbers, this guy is a special weapon. He’s got great deception, velocity, movement, I mean everything.”
Of the five Giants with at least 30 appearances this year, Moronta is the only pitcher with fewer than four seasons of major league service time. He’s the only rookie who made the Opening Day roster and has spent the entire season in the big leagues, and he remains the youngest player on the Giants’ 25-man roster.
“He’s incredible,” lefty Will Smith said. “Not just as a baseball player, but he’s a great teammate down there. He does fit in real well and to be the only Latin guy down there, he’s awesome and we love him to death. Then he goes in there and his stuff is incredible.”
Smith and Moronta share their own bond as both belong to the Tommy John surgery club.
“After going through it now, you know how hard it is,” Smith said. “It’s a full year of not playing. It’s a full year of a lot of hard work, a lot of long days and the same stuff repeating over and over again. For anybody to be able to come out of it and get back to the big leagues, it’s an impressive feat.”
Moronta blew out his elbow while pitching for the Giants’ rookie ball affiliate in the Northwest League. The injury is frightening for any pitcher, but particularly for a player who left home to journey to a foreign country where he didn’t speak the language and didn’t have family nearby.
“I was here alone and I had never been alone and away from the family for that long,” Moronta said.
He carries memories of the procedure with him everywhere, not just with the scars, but with a smiley face emoji tattooed on his elbow.
After his 93-mph heater helped Moronta land a contract at 17, he said his first post-surgery pitch in a game clocked in at 97 on the radar gun. From that point on, the reliever felt convinced his path would lead to a big league opportunity.
That chance finally arrived in a brief seven-game stint at the end of the 2017 season, but his breakout didn’t begin until a slew of injuries to Giants pitchers helped him lock in an Opening Day roster spot.
A dominant stretch at the beginning of the year helped Moronta solidify his status as a bullpen mainstay, as he allowed just three hits over his first 12 innings of work. Moronta shuffled among roles that included outings as a bullpen fireman, long reliever and even a set-up specialist, but on April 24, he got an opportunity to pitch in a situation he dreamt about since moving to the United States.
His father Francisco and stepmother Luisa traveled to the Bay Area to watch Reyes pitch in the majors, and he delivered with two shutout innings of relief and got the win — his first major league victory — when the Giants defeated the Nationals 4-3.
“It’s hard for me to explain my feelings, but it’s something that I always wanted,”
Moronta said. “I wanted my parents to be present when I pitched and it just so happened that the day when I got my first win is when they arrived and they were here.”
Since his first win, Moronta has earned two more and also secured his first major league save. Within the last month, Bochy has called on of his most versatile late-innings weapons to pitch in the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and 11th inning of games.
“He’s that one guy that this could be the moment of the game for us and it’s the sixth, and we’ve got Moronta,” Herges said. “If something happens in the eighth, we’ve got Moronta. He comes in with traffic, gets it done. He can go multiple innings.”
Moronta pitched the 11th Sunday against San Diego, allowing a leadoff walk that led to a go-ahead run.
Still, with closer Hunter Strickland sidelined for the next 5-7 weeks with a fractured hand and Bochy hoping to reduce the workload for several veteran relievers, Moronta is in line for more late-game appearances.
While the $15,000 the franchise signed him for is money well spent, Moronta’s father was right: His son is worth a lot more, and the Giants know it now.
“We have something here,” Herges said. “This is a guy that you envision being a huge part of this bullpen for years. And he’s still pretty young. It’s been nothing but impressive to me. I admire this kid.”