Jon Daniels clearly identified the Rangers’ approach at the start of the offseason: they wanted pitching, and a lot of it. The team couldn’t reel in its leviathan (Shohei Otani), but today they added another arm that was once almost as highly-regarded.
The Rangers have traded minor league pitchers Sam Wolff and Israel Cruz to the San Francisco Giants for starting pitcher Matt Moore (and $750,000 in International signing bonus pool money).
Moore was the #1 prospect in baseball at a time when Mike Trout and Bryce Harper still occupied prospect lists. Go ahead and re-read that sentence if you need to, but it’s true. Baseball Prospectus had him #1, MLB.com followed their lead, and Fangraphs decided to join the party. Baseball America liked Moore less than Harper, but more than Mike Trout, who’s off to the best start of a career of any player. Ever.
That’s a long-winded way of saying everyone used to love Matt Moore. Moore was a dominant reliever for the Rays in 2011 and started a hellacious playoff game against the Rangers. He was a good starter in 2012 and 2013. In 2014, he needed Tommy John surgery. Long story short, he hasn’t been the same guy.
San Francisco gave up a decent package to get him during the 2016 trade deadline after a brief run of success in Tampa Bay. He was useful in the last half of 2016, but less so in 2017 – where he posted a 5.52 ERA and 4.75 FIP. Jon Daniels admitted Friday night that the Rangers had been interested in acquiring Moore at that 2016 deadline, and that the contract and age were contributing factors to their interest. A year and a half later, they got their man:
“He’s a 28-year-old starter that—despite not having his best year last year—is coming of nearly 400 innings over the last two years,” Daniels said. “He’s got a four-pitch mix, and he’s had some success in both leagues. 2016 was his first full year back from Tommy John and was, for the most part, a very effective starter. Last year was clearly not his best year, but we think there are some reasons to believe he’s primed for a bounce back.”
Pressed for clarification on those “reasons to believe”, Daniels declined to give specifics, but did say this: “I just think that a lot of times when a guy is having success—pitcher or hitter—and he goes through a period where he struggles a little, it’s only natural to look back at things he did previously, when he was at his best.” Daniels said he had talked to Moore, and that the starter seems excited and motivated to dig in with the coaching staff and work towards an improved 2018.
What exactly put Moore in the situation of needing a bounce-back? It’s hard to say for sure. His fastball dipped from a 92.7 MPH average to a 92, his swinging strike rate fell from 10.6 to 8.6, and he gave up a ton of home runs – 27, to be exact. Moore was 27 when the season began and will pitch most of next season at 28, so physical regression seems unlikely – if anything, pitchers tend to improve incrementally in the years after Tommy John surgery. The Rangers may have seen something, or they may just be gambling, but based on Daniels’ comments, it certainly sounds like the former.
For the Rangers, it’s an interesting gamble on a very intriguing arm. If Moore pitches well, Texas can also bring him back in 2019 for $10 million, otherwise they’ll pay him $800,000 to walk away. It’s not a big gamble, and Moore represents as much upside as any free agent starting pitcher not named Arrieta or Darvish.
As for the price, Wolff was on the radar of a few teams, and Daniels wished him well: “Sam’s a really great person with a great arm,” Daniels said. “He’s been through a couple of tough rehabs, it was really unfortunate—(first) the achilles’ tendon, which is just kind of a freak deal, and now the flexor tendon. He has an outstanding work ethic, a competitor (…) I have every expectation he’ll come back. But you have to give up talent to get talent.”
With the acquisition of the new talent, the Rangers’ rotation now features Cole Hamels, Martin Perez, Doug Fister, Mike Minor and Moore. They could still go to a 6-man group with another starter in mind, and Matt Bush is hoping he can transition into that role. Daniels said that the team is not necessarily done stockpiling pitching, but any hopes of a reunion with Yu Darvish seem to be fading pretty rapidly: “I’ve been pretty consistent all along in saying I didn’t expect us to be playing at the top of the (pitching) market,” Daniels insisted.
Joe Siegler says
I really hope Bush doesn’t do well as a starter, I’m tired of that experiment. He was good where he was – stop fixing things that don’t need fixed.
kennyt12 says
Wait? So you want Bush to fail so you can say, “See, we shouldn’t try to make good relievers starters!” I’d rather him succeed and provide value as a number 3 starter, that’s more valuable than a setup man.
fireovid says
Really, no offense but IMHO it’s asinine to say that once a pitcher throws a full season out of the bullpen thou shalt never start again. I keep hearing that, doesn’t seem to be any real logic to it. It’s not even like Bush had years and years as a reliever.