1970-1975

Rogelio Moret was born in Guayama, Puerto Rico on September 16, 1949. He signed with the Boston Red Sox in 1968, once he had finished high school.

He was assigned to the Waterloo Hawks of the Midwest League, where he would first meet some of his future big-league teammates like Carlton Fisk and Bill Lee. He had a fine 2.44 ERA in 81 innings and also struck out 75 batters.

He won his first 7 decisions at Class-A Winter Haven in the Florida State League in 1969, struggled a bit after that winning streak and finished the season with a 12-6 record. He was still named an All-Star and earned an invitation to the Sox training camp in 1970.

Rogelio showed up late to camp and started the season in AA Pawtucket. After winning 11 games and showing some improved control, he was called up to the majors in September. He certainly caught the attention of the Boston sportswriters, but it was more for his physical appearance. The 20-year-old stood 6’-4″ and weighed 170 pounds.

Rogelio faltered a little in his first start but still ended up with a 1-0 record and a 3.24 ERA in his three appearances with the Sox. Still, the Red Sox seemed hesitant to keep him in the majors. He started 1971 in AAA Louisville, and was recalled and sent down a couple of times before he stuck on the roster as a mop-up reliever. It wasn’t until late August that he had a chance to start.

In the offseasons, he would return to Puerto Rico to play winter ball, and in the 1971-72 offseason, he was brilliant as a member of the Cangrejeros de Santurce. The only concern was that he was throwing too many innings, but he kept pitching.

Unfortunately, Rogelio came to spring training in 1972 with a stiff shoulder, and his control was poor when he did pitch. He started the season with the Red Sox but threw just five innings before being sent back to the minors, where he spent the rest of the year. He was incredibly discouraged and had to be talked out of quitting baseball by his manager, Darrell Johnson.

With a brilliant 1973 season, Rogelio stayed in the majors for good. He made 15 starts and 15 relief appearances, and he was a lights-out pitcher either way. He won his first 10 decisions and didn’t get tagged with a loss until mid-September. If there were concerns about his durability, he responded with five complete games and a couple of shutouts. He finished the season with a 13-2 record and also had a 3.17 ERA and picked up three saves in relief.

The Red Sox never could commit to putting him in the starting rotation. For one thing, the team had a formidable starting rotation in the mid-’70s, anchored by Bill Lee and Luis Tiant. In addition, they had a string of effective starters to fill out the staff, including Dick Drago, Reggie Cleveland, John Curtis and Rick Wise. Those were durable pitchers who would easily throw well over 200 innings in a season, and Rogelio topped out at 173 1/3 innings pitched in 1974. Even though he completed a fair number of his starts, the team had pigeonholed him as a swingman who only picked up starts when the team’s regular starters needed an extra day of rest.

His record was a pedestrian 9-10 with a 3.74 ERA, but he had 10 complete games and a shutout to further erase questions about his durability. That shutout was a 4-0, one-hitter against the White Sox with 12 strikeouts. The only base hit he allowed was a seventh-inning grounder by Dick Allen that deflected off Rogelio's glove and went for an infield hit. Though he lost the no-hitter, Sox owner Tom Yawkey handed him a $1,000 bonus for the game.

The Red Sox, who had been competitive in previous seasons, finally finished first in the AL East with a 95-65 record. Rogelio had a typical season beginning as a reliever, moving to the rotation to give the other starters extra rest, and then he pitched too well to go back to the pen. He 14-3, leading all of baseball with a .824 winning percentage.

He was the odd man out in the postseason rotation. He threw a scoreless inning against Oakland in the AL Championship Series and made three appearances in the World Series against Cincinnati. He was brought into Game Three after a controversial play in which Cincinnati’s Ed Armbrister dropped a bunt and got in the way of Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk. Rogelio was brought in to replace Jim Willoughby and intentionally walked Pete Rose to load the bases. He struck out Merv Rettenmund, but game up a single to Joe Morgan, giving the Reds a 6-5 win in 10 innings.

After the season, the Red Sox traded Rogelio to the Atlanta Braves and left Boston with some fiery words, accusing manager Darrell Johnson of having a bias against Latin players (Tiant, being too good a pitcher to replace, was the lone exception).

Rogelio's mental problems surfaced in April 1978, in Arlington Stadium. He walked off the field after batting practice, stripped off his uniform and threw it in the trash. He then went into a catatonic trance in front of his locker, holding a shower shoe in his right hand and couldn’t move for nearly an hour. He spent three weeks at the Arlington Neuropsychiatric Center. When he returned to the Texas Rangers he only pitched in seven games the whole seasonand was releaded in March of 1979.

His problems continued to mount in the Puerto Rican league. When he pitched, sometimes he would make as many as 20 straight throws to first base, apparently forgetting about the batter and other times just walked off the mound with no explanation. He was eventually released early in the 1983-84 season and was put in a hospital in San Juan for months at a time. He had lost his earnings from professional baseball, and he wasn’t sure just where the money went. His occasional violent behavior led to a divorce, was arrested in 1985 for possession of marijuana and was sentenced to five years in prison, after pleasing guilty of drug possession with intent to distribute. A psychiatrist in San Juan who had been treating him diagnosed him with chronic undifferentiated schizophrenia, citing that the pressure of playing major-league baseball contributed to his problems.

There is not much available about Rogelio Moret’s life beyond that 1987 article. He attended a reunion of the 1975 Red Sox team in 2014, and looked healthy. One can only hope that he enjoyed many years of peace and quiet in his retirement

Rogelio Moret died on December 7, 2020 in his home of Guayama, Puerto Rico, at the age of 71 after battling cancer.