Dauri Moreta Heads to Japan: Former Pirates Breakout Reliever Looks to Reignite Career with Hanshin Tigers
Dauri Moreta’s next chapter won’t be in Pittsburgh-or anywhere else in Major League Baseball, for that matter. The former Pirates reliever is heading to Japan, signing with the Hanshin Tigers after being designated for assignment in late November. For fans who watched Moreta flash brilliance in 2023, it’s a bittersweet goodbye, but not necessarily a final one.
Moreta carved out a cult following in Pittsburgh after arriving from Cincinnati in the Kevin Newman trade. That first season in black and gold?
Electric. He was one of the most deceptive arms in the game, leaning on a slider that looked like it was breaking laws of physics.
He missed bats at an elite rate and quickly became a go-to piece in a bullpen that seemed to be turning a corner.
But baseball can be unforgiving. Tommy John surgery wiped out all of 2024 and most of 2025 for Moreta.
And when he finally made it back to the mound, the stuff just wasn’t the same. The slider that once danced across the plate lost its edge.
The fastball? A few ticks slower.
In 18 appearances, he managed to stay afloat, but the underlying numbers told a different story-one of diminished effectiveness and uncertainty.
For a Pirates team trying to build a sustainable contender, that kind of question mark was hard to keep around. Even after trading Mike Burrows, Pittsburgh’s pitching pipeline is stacked.
Prospects like Thomas Harrington, Jaden Woods, Brandan Bidois, and Hunter Barco are all knocking on the big-league door, and innings are at a premium. That left Moreta as the odd man out.
Still, this move to Japan isn’t a farewell-it’s a fresh start. The Hanshin Tigers, fresh off a Japan Series appearance, have a solid track record when it comes to helping pitchers reset and relaunch.
Just ask Robert Suárez or Pierce Johnson. Even Moreta’s former Reds teammate, Nick Martinez, used his NPB stint to retool and return to MLB with a vengeance.
What the Tigers can give Moreta is time-something the Pirates couldn’t. Time to rebuild his mechanics, regain his feel, and, hopefully, rediscover the slider that once made him so tough to square up. He’s still just 28, and the story of relievers reinventing themselves overseas is one we’ve seen play out before.
For now, Pirates fans will have to set their alarms early if they want to catch Moreta’s outings in Japan. But if things break right, this won’t be the last we hear of him. The road back to the majors might be long, but it’s far from closed.