Pirates reliever undergoes UCL surgery

Pirates right-hander Dauri Moreta underwent surgery on his ulnar collateral ligament, reports Alex Stumpf of MLB.com, and will be out of action for the next 14 to 16 months. The righty is already on the Pirates’ 60-day injured list.

This news confirms what was already expected. Two weeks ago, it was reported that Moreta was dealing with a ligament injury in his right elbow. 

Though he and the club were going to gather more information, it was acknowledged that he was going to miss “an extended period of time.” 

When the Bucs signed Michael A. Taylor last week, they moved Moreta to the 60-day injured list as the corresponding move.

It seems that the further information gathering did nothing to give Moreta any hope of avoiding surgery. Based on the timeline from Stumpf, it seems like Moreta had full Tommy John surgery. 

That’s just speculation as the club has not yet made an official announcement, but the internal brace surgery usually comes with a lesser timeline of around a year.

Moreta, 28 next month, seemed to have a breakout year with the Pirates in 2023. He pitched 58 innings out of the bullpen, his largest workload in a major league season, and finished the year with a 3.72 earned run average. His 10 percent walk rate was a tad high, but he paired that with an excellent 31.8 percent strikeout rate.

He would have been looking to build on that in 2024, but it will instead go down as a lost season. 

He’ll be aiming for a return in the middle of 2025, by which point he’ll be 29 years old. In the meantime, he’ll spend this season on the injured list, collecting major league pay and service time. 

For the Bucs, this means they will be without one of their more interesting young arms for the next year-plus.