Mariners utilityman scheduled to undergo MRI due to core discomfort

Mariners utilityman Dylan Moore has not played all season. He suffered a Grade 1 oblique strain during spring training, an injury that shut him down from baseball activities for several weeks. It looked as if he was nearing his return, though, 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, but is now apparently dealing with a new injury concern. Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times tweets that Moore experienced some core discomfort coming out of that game. He will now be returned from his rehab assignment and head to Philadelphia for an MRI.

The right-handed hitter indicated that his current soreness is not in the oblique area. It is concerning nevertheless, as Moore had a core injury late last season, too, and that one necessitated offseason surgery. His upcoming imaging will be with the surgeon who performed that earlier procedure, according to Divish.

Moore signed a three-year extension in February, a testament to the value the Seattle front office and coaching staff put on his defensive flexibility, baserunning and pesky right-handed bat. While Moore’s offense has been up-and-down throughout his career, he is coming off a 2022 campaign in which he posted a .224/.368/.385 batting line in 255 plate appearances.

Consistently high strikeout totals have resulted in a lowly .208 career batting average, but Moore draws plenty of walks and has enough power to post roughly league average on-base (.317) and slugging (.384) marks after taking into account Seattle’s pitcher-friendly park.

The Mariners planned for Moore to platoon with trade acquisition Kolten Wong at second base this summer. The lefty-hitting Wong has taken the bulk of the at-bats to open the campaign, with a handful of plate appearances also going to Sam Haggerty and José Caballero. Seattle second basemen entered play on Friday with a woeful .088/.171/.103 line over 77 trips to the plate, 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 is 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.