The Twins announced that left-hander Jovani Moran’s contract has been selected from Triple-A. In the corresponding moves, Randy Dobnak was moved on the 60-day injured list (thus officially ending Dobnak’s season), and southpaw Andrew Albers was optioned to Triple-A.
Moran was a seventh-round pick for the Twins in the 2015 draft, and the 24-year-old is now on the verge of his major league debut. Ranked by MLB Pipeline as the 26th-best prospect in Minnesota’s farm system, Moran has pitched almost exclusively as a reliever since the start of the 2017 season, and emerged with strong performances at both the Double-A and Triple-A levels in 2021. Moran has a 2.41 ERA over 67 1/3 combined innings at the two levels, along with a very impressive 41.8% strikeout rate. While recording strikeouts has never been a problem for Moran, control has been a bit more an issue — his 12.26% walk rate this season roughly matches his career average.
Moran’s fastball sits in the 91-94 mph range, but he is best known for his outstanding changeup. According to Pipeline’s scouting report, “some see it as a double-plus pitch,” to the point that Moran doesn’t often use his third pitch (a somewhat medium-grade slider). For a Twins team that will be looking for pitching in all forms this winter, Moran certainly has an opportunity in these final few weeks to get himself into the bullpen picture for 2022.
Dobnak was placed on the 10-day IL earlier this week due to a right middle finger sprain — the same injury that saw the right-hander miss more than two months of the season in an earlier 60-day IL stint. The injuries further exacerbated an already rough season for Dobnak, who posted a 7.64 ERA over 50 2/3 innings out of both the Twins’ rotation and bullpen.
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