D-Mo’s excellence is recognized league-wide.
The American League Player of the Week is Dylan Moore. The Seattle Mariners announced Moore had won the award for the first time in his career Monday afternoon, following a week in which he went 10-for-26 with a double, three home runs, and a 1.177 OPS while playing second base and shortstop predominantly. The scorching hot start for Seattle’s 32 year old veteran utility man has been essential excellence for a Mariners club thin and inexperienced in the infield. Following the injury to Ryan Bliss that took out Seattle’s primary 2B, along with lingering oblique tenderness that compounded dicey defensive reps from Jorge Polanco at 3B, Moore has been forced into essentially full-time work once again.
All he’s done since is put the Cincinnati Reds and Toronto Blue Jays into Kylo Ren-esque fits of pique.
Moore’s exposure is, as it has been his entire career, a bit lopsided, as he’s running a 187 wRC+ and .316/.371/.596 line on the year. Broken out, that’s a wobbly three legged table of a 65 wRC+ in the early going against righties, blasted into the stratosphere by a geyser that’d put Old Faithful to shame against southpaws, with a cartoonish 367 wRC+ against them that includes all of his big flies. Moore is in the final year of his three year contract extension signed to cover the 2023-25 seasons, over which Moore’s continued to be a steady, versatile bench player. While his baserunning has been a more tenuous proposition this season, you can trot as slowly as you’d like around the bases if you hit it over the fence. The Green Monster will attempt to contain Moore this week, as Moore will face at least two lefty starters in all likelihood and continue to try to pace the M’s lineup.