Left-handed reliever Matt Moore reunites with the Angels on a one-year $9 million contract, as the New York Post’s Jon Heyman first reported. Moore signed with the Angels last offseason but was put on waivers in August so the Angels could get under the luxury tax threshold.
Moore was the Angels’ best reliever last year, posting a 2.66 ERA, 3.76 FIP, 28.0 K%, and a 4.08 K/BB ratio in 44 innings pitched with the Halos, according to Baseball Reference. Moore was claimed off waivers by the Cleveland Guardians in late August and only pitched 4.2 innings before getting put back on waivers and claimed by the Miami Marlins to pitch another four innings.
With a three-pitch arsenal that features a four-seam fastball, changeup, and knuckle curve, Moore is a flyball pitcher who relies on his changeup for weak contact and swing-and-misses. His changeup has the lowest hard hit rate of the three pitches with a 22.4 Hard Hit% compared to his next lowest pitch, the knuckle curve, at 40.0 Hard Hit%, according to Baseball Savant. Moore’s arsenal also gives him an elite chase rate at 34.9 Chase%. What makes his changeup so good is how it is 10 miles per hour slower than his fastball, and it moves 3.3 inches more horizontally than the average MLB changeup, according to Baseball Savant.
As long as Moore keeps the changeup down, he will continue to see the success he has had over the last few years. The problem that Moore runs into is with his fastball location. Moore tries to keep his fastball at the top of the zone and lets his changeup and knuckle curve deceive hitters at the bottom of the zone, but if the fastball catches too much of the zone, it can get hit hard and in the air. Overall, Moore has above-average swing-and-miss in his game (28.2 Whiff% and 27.5 K%) and does not walk many batters (6.9 BB%).
As for what this signing means for the Angels, they now have a decent bullpen on paper. According to FanGraph’s roster resource, the Angels bullpen is currently, from top to bottom, Carlos Estévez, Robert Stephenson, Moore, José Soriano, Ben Joyce, Luis Garcia, Adam Cimber, and José Suarez with José Quijada, and Austin Warren still recovering from Tommy John surgery. This has the potential to be a solid bullpen, so the starting rotation needs to eat innings so this bullpen does not get overworked and injured as it has in years past.
