What is wrong with Jovani Morán, and what do you do with him?

 

Jovani Moran has begun his third year in the majors, and its off to a less than ideal start. Moran has started the season with a 7.71 ERA in 7 innings pitched. He can't seem to find the strike zone too often, but when he does, he paints the corners.

Moran had a fantastic year with the Twins in 2022, posting a 2.21 ERA with 54 strikeouts and allowed no home runs in the 40.2 innings he pitched last year. In 2021 Moran posted a 7.88 ERA in 8 innings pitched.

To start 2023 Moran has already allowed 2 long balls, and 7 runs to score not even a month into the season. Last night being probably his worst outing yet.

The Twins and Red Sox exchanged leads all game leading into extra innings tied at 4 a piece. Twins pitcher Jhoan Duran pitched a fantastic 9th inning to force extra innings. Twins DH Byron Buxton put the Twins ahead with a deep fly ball to right field to score a run to put the Twins ahead 3-2 with Miranda driving in another for a 4-2 Twins lead going into the bottom half of the 10th... This is where it all went to shit.

Moran comes in for the 10th. First up for the Red Sox was Kike Hernandez. Moran actually struck out Hernandez, but the third strike was a wild pitch and allowed Hernandez to reach, putting runners on the corners with nobody out. Triston Casas batted next and Moran prompted walked him to load the bases. Moran gets a mound meeting with Twins pitching coach Pete Maki. At this point Pagan was warming in the pen, insinuating that Moran would probably be pulled if his third required batter to pitch to went poorly, but that isn't what happened. Instead, Reese McGuire hit a single to left field from a full count scoring Kutter Crawford (the extra runner that started on second), and Hernandez tying the game at 4-4. I think everyone including myself expected that to be it for Moran, but Rocco Baldelli did not come out of the dugout. Moran was left to face Jarren Duran. Duran hits another single to left to load the bases AGAIN, and Moran still was not being pulled from the game despite the fact Pagan was definitely warm by now. Finally Moran is able to get hit first out(s) when Rob Refsnyder hit a ground ball to Jose Miranda who tagged the runner coming home and threw to first. Now with runners on second and third, Moran still in the game, the lineup turned to the top of the order with Alex Verdugo. Verdugo launched a ball to deep right field and it hit the wall right on the yellow foul line. A Twins fan was also reaching for the ball, but ended up not being able to reach it. The Twins challenged the call of fair ball on the field, but the officials confirmed the ball was fair. Walk off single for Verdugo.

I don't know what the Twins saw out there that validated keeping Moran in for so long. Maybe Rocco's classic tendency to "save" bullpen pitchers early in the series, but if you were planning on warming Pagan anyways, why not just use him for the 10th then? He has the much better ERA, he has only struggled the one time this season in the opening series against the Royals.

The Twins may believe in Moran, but their fanbase is losing hope quickly. So the question remains, what do you do with Moran? He has MLB talent as shown last year pitching such a good season with a fair sample size of fantastic outings. The Twins don't have a whole lot of pitching depth at the AAA level right now either. They designated Danny Coloumbe for assignment earlier in the year who was quickly scooped up by the Orioles and called up to the MLB level where he is thriving, with a 1.29 ERA through 7 innings pitched. The Twins also dumped Tyler Duffey last season after a up and down season where he went through 3 different organizations ending up on the Iowa Cubs, who he has not been great for.

I suppose the Twins have no choice but to leave him on the MLB roster for now, but how bad does it have to get before enough is enough?