Moore 'looks better than he ever has'

This story was excerpted from Daniel Kramer’s Mariners Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

KANSAS CITY -- Dylan Moore had his first notable hiccups in weeks on Sunday, when he went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and a fielding error in the first inning that led to a decisive run in an extra-innings loss to the Orioles.

But beyond that, it’s hard to find many detriments to his game these days.

The Mariners’ utility man entered the week with a gaudy .786 slugging percentage in the second half to go with a .404 on-base percentage that correlates to a 1.190 OPS that leads the team -- by a wide margin -- among players with at least 40 plate appearances.

There is some caveat, given that Moore doesn’t play every day. But the value of his versatile role came to the forefront last week when J.P. Crawford was placed on the 7-day concussion IL, thrusting Moore more regularly at shortstop. He’s also played left field, right, first and second base since the All-Star break.

But moving around the diamond is nothing new for the fifth-year big leaguer. No, the new development is that he’s crushing the baseball harder than at any point in his career.

“D-Mo looks better than he ever has,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said recently. “He is in a different area code than he ever has been.”

Moore has seen a massive uptick in average exit velocity (from 87.8 mph for his career to 91.1 mph) and hard-hit rate, or anything above 95 mph off the bat (from a career 36.5% to 55.3% in 2023). Again, the sample size is just 77 plate appearances over 31 games, due to his delayed debut into June due to a core injury that lingered from offseason surgery.

But still, the spike is significant.

“It feels very consistent,” Moore said after an early BP session, for which he’s a regular participant. “When I'm hitting the ball hard, it usually means I'm more consistent, which is good for me. I've always hit the ball hard but the consistency has been [key].”

Where did he find that consistency?

“Probably just a little bit more looseness, not trying to be so rigid with my whole body,” Moore said. “Just being loose and like letting the barrel do the work instead and trying to force it through like. Trusting that I have a good [bat] path or that I'm on time and things like that. Obviously, the work is still the work.”

Moore has also closed a big hole in his swing by crushing fastballs, specifically near the top rail, which was a notable weak spot in years past. He's hitting .343 and slugging .857 with four of his five homers against fastballs. He only went deep once last year in the upper-third of the strike zone, and this season he’s done so three times.

“He’s handling the ball at the top of the strike zone best we have ever seen,” Servais said. “It has always been an issue for him. If you can start handling the ball at the top of the strike zone, you now can start looking for the ball up and you can stay off the ball down.”

Moore’s first challenges upon returning, naturally, were related to his timing. He never played in Cactus League games because of a setback with the core issue that turned into a left-oblique strain. Then he began the year 3-for-32 with 17 strikeouts before things finally clicked two weeks ago in Minnesota, when he crushed two homers in a key win. Making matters more challenging in that cold spell were the constraints of his role upon returning -- it’s hard to find timing unless you’re regularly seeing big league pitching.

“I think maybe I just have more confidence,” Moore said. “I've done it before. I'm being super focused on my intent during the game as opposed to being like 'All right, I haven't seen some pitches. Let's see some pitches. Let's relax a little bit.' Just being super obsessed with being on time for the fastball has helped me a lot because when you don't play every day, you're only going to have one or two pitches per AB to hit.”

Moore is as cognizant of the necessity to make adjustments as anybody in the Mariners’ clubhouse, and his latest are paying off in a big way.