The Texas Rangers signed one Seattle Mariners veteran in Rowdy Tellez and that worked out well. Perhaps Texas can make it happen twice in one season?
Per The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal on X (formerly Twitter), along with Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News on X, the Rangers have agreed to a minor league deal with former Mariners second baseman Dylan Moore. He was released by the Mariners on Sunday, two days after he was designated for assignment. He could be an option to replace Marcus Semien, who is on the 10-day injured list.
The signing has not popped up on Moore’s MLB.com page. It is also not listed on the Rangers’ transactions page. But when he does sign, he will likely be assigned to Triple-A Round Rock. That’s where Tellez was assigned when he signed a minor league deal in early July. Since he was promoted, he’s given the Rangers’ offense some life, as he has slashed .270/.338/.508 with four home runs and 13 RBI in 27 games.
Moore also has a history with Texas. The Yorba Linda, Calif., native was the Rangers’ seventh-round pick in the 2015 MLB draft out of UCF. Moore lasted a year with the Rangers before he was traded to the Atlanta Braves in 2016 for cash considerations. He spent more than two years with the Braves and was released in late 2018 before he signed with the Mariners.
Moore has struggled at the plate throughout his career, as he has a .205/.310/.381 slash with 61 home runs and 192 RBI. This season he slashed .193/.263/.359 with nine home runs and 19 RBI in 88 games with the Mariners before his release.
He made his MLB debut in 2019 and played his entire MLB career with the Mariners before his release. He’s played in more than 100 games in a season four different times, most recently in 2024, when he played in a career-high 135 games.
On Monday, Rangers manager Bruce Bochy told reporters that he expects to rotate three players into the position based on matchups and quality of play. Those players were Ezequiel Duran, Josh Smith and Cody Freeman. In the six games without Semien, the Rangers have given Duran the bulk of the playing time. He’s on his best offensive stretch of the season. In August he’s slashed .347/.373/.429 with six RBI.
Smith has primarily played left field as the Rangers are working though the injury to Evan Carter, who has a fractured wrist he suffered last week in Kansas City. Freeman can play infield and outfield and started at second base on Saturday, during which he hit his first Major League home run.
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