Former Mariners Prospect Andrew Moore DFA’d by Tampa Bay

The Seattle Mariners may need to add another starter at some point and perhaps they could find an answer in a former prospect and former Mariners pitcher Andrew Moore.

Many Mariners fans might remember the name, Andrew Moore. Farm system followers certainly remember a time when Moore was inside the Top 10 Mariners prospects according to many publications. How greatly things have changed.

If he was considered a prospect now, Moore would struggle to crack the Top 25, let alone the Top 10. But prospect status is irrelevant to our discussion today. So let’s take a look at the merits of re-acquiring the one time Mariner.

Moore, a second-round pick in 2015, was drafted out of Oregon State and actually made 9 starts for Seattle in 2017 and the results were pretty mediocre. In his 11 appearances, Moore posted a 5.34 ERA, a 5.65 FIP, and an awful 4.7 K/9 ratio. He did manage to post a respectable 1.15 WHIP, thanks in large part to his minuscule 1.2 BB/9.

Moore headed back to AAA in 2018 before he was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays with Tommy Romero for Alex Colome and Denard Span. Moore never made it to the big leagues in 2018 but did post pretty good numbers in AAA: a 3.85 ERA, a 1.28 WHIP, and a 6.8 K/9 rate.

But 2019 has been a disaster for Moore early on and his 40-man roster spot was sacrificed to make room for Nate Lowe. He now finds himself in DFA purgatory, waiting to see if he is traded, released, or demoted to AAA.

Moore is a classic swingman who doesn’t really have the stuff to give any high-leverage situations to, nor does he have the stuff to make it through a lineup three times. Moore has good command and a good changeup, but the fastball is 90 mph and straight and the breaking pitches are below-average.

The Mariners could use some depth in Tacoma but there is a very real chance that he isn’t any better now than Christian Bergman, Erik Swanson, Tommy Milone, etc, etc. If the team did want to re-acquire him, he would come quite cheap, perhaps for even just a couple hundred thousand dollars.

Even if Moore is free, you would still have to clear a 40-man spot. While that may not be too difficult, it is still a strike against re-acquiring him. Moore is likely not an upgrade to the rotation or bullpen.

Unless the Mariners believe Moore can add a few miles on the fastball like Ljay Newsome, or believe they can make one of his breaking balls an above-average pitch, a reunion between the Mariners and Moore may just not make much sense.