The Rangers have agreed to a minor league contract with utilityman Dylan Moore, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Moore, a client of Klutch Sports, was recently released by the division-rival Mariners.
Moore now returns to the organization that drafted him a decade ago. Texas selected him in the seventh round in 2015 out of the University of Central Florida. He didn’t advance beyond High-A before being traded to Atlanta a year later. Moore spent time in the Braves’ and Brewers’ systems until finally getting an MLB opportunity in Seattle as a minor league free agent.
It proved to be an adept pickup for the M’s front office. Moore played parts of seven seasons in Seattle and was a capable role player for most of that time. He won a Gold Glove in a utility capacity just last year. Moore bounced around the diamond while generally hitting for power against left-handed pitching. He has never been a high average hitter but showed enough of a well-rounded skillset that Seattle signed him to a three-year, $8.875MM extension in Spring Training 2023.
The first two seasons of that deal went well enough. Moore’s bat has absolutely cratered this year, as he’s hitting .193/.263/.359 across 213 plate appearances. He’s batting .149 with 44 strikeouts in 109 plate appearances with the platoon advantage and has gone a staggering 3-63 (.048) with 36 strikeouts in 41 games since the start of June. Seattle could no longer live with that kind of production, even in a bench capacity, while they fight for a playoff spot.
There’s neither much risk nor a huge ceiling on the deal for Texas. Seattle is on the hook for the rest of Moore’s $3.575MM salary. Texas would only pay him the prorated $760K league minimum for time he spends on the MLB roster. Moore will be a free agent at season’s end. He’ll provide an alternative to Ezequiel Duran and Josh Jung for infield playing time if he gets called up. Texas just lost Marcus Semien to what appears to be a season-ending foot fracture. Moore would be playoff eligible if Texas makes a surprise September run.
Woah
Well, at least the M’s and the Rangers are done playing against each other this year. (10-3, Mariners)
Yeah, it is good the Mariners aren’t playing Texas anymore this season. I could see Dylan all of a sudden have a career series against the Mariners and no one would have seen it coming.
you just said you could see it coming
The team that drafted him…
But why? The Ramgers aren’t making the playoffs so instead of a veteran why not play a younger guy?
Rangers new team philosiophy… u can’t have enough sub .230 hitters on a team
It’s a minor-league deal.
Im sure they have intent to use him. Semien just went down and hes a 32yo impending free agent with less than 30 games in major league season and minors end before that
2.5 out
Where are all those geniuses that said nobody would sign him?
As you say, it’s a minor-league deal. He’s worked so hard. I really hope he does well, especially in those 6 remaining games against those other Texas people.
But that’s just it. A minor-league deal was so obvious, yet some people thought no team would touch him.
He probably had plenty of choices. There are some familiar faces in the Rangers’ organization.
So many of the Rangers fielders so grossly underachieved this year…Doran, Garcia, Jung & Heim to name a few. Some of them will likely be traded or released soon. It’ll be scary to watch because it’s a low point in their perceived value. Not long ago, we envisioned all of them to be our future Allstars. Soon it could still happen but on another team.
Sam Haggerty III