The good news? The Seattle Mariners are atop the Cactus League Standings. The bad news? That really means nothing. The even more bad news? Catcher Adam Moore fell victim to the injury bug with a broken bone in his wrist, Geoff Baker reports.
The Mariners announced that Moore had fractured the third metacarpal in his right wrist after blocking a ball in Tuesday's game against the Reds. Moore actually finished that game, going 2-for-2 with a two-run double to up his spring average to .667 (4-for-6, four runs scored, a double, a homer and three RBI). But the pain in the wrist persisted post-game and an examination of the wrist yesterday revealed the break. Moore will visit a hand specialist today and have the wrist placed in a cast. The Mariners have yet to announce a timeline for Moore's recovery, but, as with Franklin Gutierrez, he's pretty much going to miss most spring training games and will need time to get back into playing shape and all that. In other words, the first couple of months of his season -- wherever that winds up being -- are now shot.
This is a big setback for Adam Moore. He had been putting up good numbers in an attempt to help forget his 2011 injury lost season, and the path to catcher was already more crowded with the additions of John Jaso and Jesus Montero (to a certain degree). The Mariners have spent quite a bit of time trying to clear a path for Adam Moore in the big leagues, and you have to think that there is something to be believed about his potential as a catcher, or at least a back-up catcher. But now, Moore is losing a lot of precious Spring Training at bats to differentiate himself from the other guys.
For the Mariners going forward, all hope isn't lost at the position. Miguel Olivo has an option for next year. If he has a big year offensively, he can be worth keeping around for not too much of a cost. Scouts have had good things to say about Jaso, and who knows - maybe this means we'll see Montero doing a bit more catching then we were expecting.