Mariners utilityman Dylan Moore hasn’t played all season. He suffered a Grade 1 oblique strain during Spring Training, an injury that shut him down from baseball activities for a few weeks. It looked as if he was nearing his return, as he embarked on a rehab assignment with High-A Everett on Tuesday.
Moore only played in one game for the AquaSox, tallying three plate appearances. Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times tweets that Moore experienced some core discomfort coming out of that game. He’ll be returned from his rehab assignment and head to Philadelphia for an MRI.
The right-handed hitter indicated his current soreness isn’t in the oblique area. It’s concerning nevertheless, as Moore had a core injury late last season that necessitated offseason surgery. His upcoming imaging will be with the surgeon who performed that procedure, according to Divish.
Moore signed a three-year extension in February. That was a testament to the value the Seattle front office and coaching staff put on his defensive flexibility, baserunning and right-handed bat. Moore’s offense has been up-and-down throughout his career, but he’s coming off a .224/.368/.385 showing in 255 plate appearances. Consistently high strikeout totals have resulted in a lowly .208 career batting average. Moore draws plenty of walks and has enough power to post roughly league average on-base (.317) and slugging (.384) marks after considering Seattle’s pitcher-friendly park.
The Mariners planned for Moore to platoon with trade acquisition Kolten Wong at second base. The lefty-hitting Wong has taken the bulk of the at-bats, with a handful of plate appearances going to Sam Haggerty and José Caballero. Seattle second basemen enter play Friday with a woeful .088/.171/.103 line over 77 trips, largely because of Wong’s frigid start with his new team. The veteran infielder is hitting .098/.190/.098 over 16 games as a Mariner.
In more fortunate injury news, reliever Andrés Muñoz is set to begin a rehab stint with Triple-A Tacoma next week, tweets the Seattle Times’ Adam Jude. Muñoz hit the injured list on April 8 with a deltoid strain. It seems he’s in line to return not long after a minimal 15-day absence. The flamethrowing right-hander worked 65 innings of 2.49 ERA ball with an elite 38.7% strikeout percentage last season, breaking through as one of the sport’s best late-game weapons.
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