Former Giant Reyes Moronta passes away at age 31

A car accident reportedly took the life of the 31-year-old relief pitcher Sunday

Reyes Moronta, a San Francisco Giants relief pitcher for five seasons, passed away after a traffic accident early Sunday night. Reportedly, Moronta was riding an all-terrain vehicle outside his father’s home in the Dominican Republic when the fatal accident occurred. He was 31 years old.

Moronta was a member of the Giants from 2017-21, putting up two extremely strong seasons out of the bullpen in 2018 and 2019, before a torn labrum near the end of 2019 derailed his career. After he missed the 2020 season rehabilitating his shoulder, he suffered an elbow injury after four appearances in 2021, and spent time with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Angels for the remainder of his major league career.

Signing with the Giants at age 17, Moronta spent 11 years in the Giants organization. At 18, he was playing for the Dominican Summer League Giants. At age 23, Moronta could throw 100 MPH, and was a California League All-Star for the single-A San Jose Giants. By age 24, he’d made his major league debut.

In his rookie season of 2018, Moronta became one of Bruce Bochy’s favorite weapons out of the pen. He pitched in 69 games (nice), going 5-2 with a 2.49 ERA and striking out 79 in 65 innings. The next season, he only took a small step back, putting up a 2.86 ERA and striking out better than 11 batters per nine innings. But he collapsed on the mound during a relief appearance on August 31 of that year, having torn the labrum in his right shoulder. After that, he threw just four more innings for the Giants in the next two seasons.

Moronta could throw gas, and he had an effective slider, but he certainly didn’t look like a professional athlete. Listed at 5-foot-10, Moronta officially weighed 265 pounds, putting him firmly in the tradition of beloved plus-sized Giants relievers, alongside luminaries like Rod “Shooter” Beck and Pablo Sandoval. With both arms covered in tattoos and a beefy frame, Moronta didn’t resemble your typical lights-out reliever, until batters were shaking their heads walking back to the dugout after a strikeout.

In this video from 2021, Moronta praised Johnny Cueto’s cooking and Brandon Crawford’s hair, called Wandy Peralta a good friend, and talked about how he wished he could be a race car driver, but ominously warned that driving was too dangerous and he didn’t want to “risk my life.”

Moronta’s time in the organization was long, but his time playing for the big league Giants was unfortunately brief. R.I.P. to a very memorable old Giant, gone too soon.