Will reliever Dauri Moreta be one-and-done with the Reds?
With impending roster decisions looming, finding a spot on the Cincinnati Reds 40-man roster could be quite difficult for a number of players.
Tuesday's deadline for teams to protect their prospects from he Rule 5 Draft along with Friday's non-tender deadline will make for a very intriguing week, especially throughout Reds Country.
Several Reds players are assured of a spot on the roster, but one could argue that an equal number of players on Cincinnati's squad are in jeopardy of losing their job to an up-and-comer. Will relief pitcher Dauri Moreta be a casualty at the deadline?
Will reliever Dauri Moreta be one-and-done with the Reds?
Dauri Moreta had a cup of coffee with the Cincinnati Reds in 2021. The right-hander dominated the competition at three different levels of the minor leagues that season and made it all the way to The Show. In four appearances out of the Reds bullpen, Moreta posted a 2.45 and struck out four batters.
That was a brief audition for Moreta who was actually part of the Reds 2022 Opening Day roster. But after allowing five earned runs in mid-May and watching his ERA balloon to 9.88, the Redlegs sent Moreta back to the minors.
Moreta looked much better after returning from the minors in mid-June and yo-yo'd between Triple-A Louisville and the big leagues for the remainder of the 2022. Over his final 24.2 innings of work, Moreta owned a 2.92 ERA and 3.92 FIP to go along with a strikeout-rate of 23.7% and a walk-rate of 7.3%.
Seeing as how the Cincinnati Reds are short on quality arms, especially among the relief corps, it's a good bet that Dauri Moreta will survive the impending roster crunch this week. With that said, the 26-year-old will need to duplicate what he produced during the second-half of the 2022 season if he wants to make a serious run at being part of the Reds once again in 2023.