3 potential reunions that could help the SF Giants in 2023

3 potential reunions that could help the SF Giants in 2023

3. Hard-throwing righty Reyes Moronta

I think there are a lot of Giants fans who just want to see Reyes Moronta return to the form he demonstrated earlier in his career. He debuted with San Francisco in 2017 and quickly became a reliable reliever with the Giants before he sustained a scary shoulder injury in September of 2019. He missed the 2020 season after undergoing surgery to repair the injury.

In his first three seasons, the hard-throwing right posted a 2.66 ERA with an 11.2 K/9 across 132 appearances. He was wild at times but was a tough at-bat for opposing hitters.

Moronta returned to the major league mound in 2021 where he yielded just one earned run in four innings with the Giants. Though, his four-seam fastball sat in the low-90's, which was several ticks below his career norm. It was a concern and the 30-year-old struggled to find any consistency in Triple-A.

He pitched for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks last year where he posted a 4.30 ERA, 4.41 FIP, 1.127 WHIP, 9.1 K/9, and a 2.11 SO/W ratio in 39 appearances. These are not great numbers for a reliever, but much more promising than what he showed a year prior with San Francisco.

Recovering from shoulder surgery has been a long, uphill battle for Moronta. However, his four-seam fastball sat in the mid-90's with good spin and he still flashed a good slider in 2022. Opposing hitters tallied just 10 hits in 47 at-bats against it.

Can Moronta return to the pitcher he was in the late 2010's? That seems unlikely, but it would not hurt the Giants to find out. He still records decent strikeout numbers, and perhaps, being another year removed from major surgery will show even more promise.