Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES, CA — Because of the long-awaited return of pitcher Dustin May on Saturday, the Dodgers needed to clear up some roster space pronto. And, not surprisingly it was reliever Reyes Moronta who got the axe. The hefty righty was designated for assignment on Saturday ahead of May’s start against the Miami Marlins.
Moronta has been up and down with the club since April of this year. This season, he’s thrown 23 2/3 innings for the Dodgers with a 4.18 ERA. He’s still getting strikeouts at a healthy 27.6% clip, but is also still giving out walks at a 10.2% rate. The key difference might be the long ball, however, as Moronta has allow five this season after only allowing eight over a two-year stretch with the Giants, which so far has been the height of his career.
Still, with the trade deadline already past, there is sure to be a contender in need of bullpen help that could use Reyes’s services. If he passes through the waiver period of the next couple days, then the Dodgers could reclaim him and ship him off to OKC until he’s needed again.
Known more for his portly physique than for his pitching prowess this season, Moronta nevertheless had his moments. Probably, the greatest of these was his two innings of shutout ball on Sunday night baseball in Atlanta. Those two innings in what looked like a losing effort set the stage for the epic comeback that was to follow. However, moments like that got less and less frequent as the season has worn on and these days Moronta has strictly been an innings-eaten at the tail end of lopsided games.
We’ll see what the future holds, both for Moronta, and for his replacement on the roster, Dustin May.
