What Should the San Francisco Giants do with Matt Moore?

After another disappointing start, you have to wonder if the San Francisco Giants will bring back Matt Moore for the 2018 season.

I’ll be the first to admit that I loved the Matt Moore trade. He was a rising star for the Tampa Bay Rays before injuries struck. Sometimes we take for granted that pitchers will come back from injury and be the same or even better.

However, that hasn’t been the case for Moore. In 2015 he had an ERA of 5.43 in 12 starts after coming back from injury. He was much better last year with a 4.08 ERA in 33 starts. But then he’s regressed this year with a 5.38 ERA in 26 starts.

He’s been very inconsistent with the San Francisco Giants this year. He’s yet to have a month with an ERA under four. Moore now leads the team with 13 losses on the season.

At times he looks like the old Matt Moore with his 12 quality starts. But then he has starts like he had on Tuesday night where he gives up five runs to the San Diego Padres.

He’s given up four runs or more in 12 of his starts this year — that’s almost half.

In the month of June he had just one quality start, but gave up three runs or more in every start that month.

He had actually been pretty good before Tuesday with three start quality starts in August before getting crushed by the Padres.

On August 13 he had possibly his best start of the year striking out nine over seven innings against the Washington Nationals. It’s outings like those that make you think Moore can turn it around. But then he  gives you a stinker like Tuesday that makes you pull your hair out.

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As a fantasy baseball player I’ve picked up Moore a couple of times this year for a spot starter. Most of those were against teams that should have been a slam dunk quality start, and quite often he let me down.

This is technically the last year of Matt Moore’s contract. He has a $9 million team option for 2018 and a $10 million team option for 2019. It would cost the San Francisco Giants $1 million to part ways with him after this year.

At the beginning of the year this seemed like a no-brainer, but now I’m not so sure. If the San Francisco Giants feel they can find someone to replace him, I think they let Moore go.

Next: San Francisco Giants: Revisiting the Giancarlo Stanton Trade Rumors

However, $9 million isn’t a ton of money for the San Francisco Giants, so who knows. But Moore might be spending the rest of 2017 fighting for a spot in the 2018 rotation.