For the Texas Rangers to crawl out of their hole, it starts with this player.
Corey Seager could take a nap for the next six years and his legacy with the Texas Rangers is both secure, and bullet proof. This isn’t about legacy. For the sake of this current team, he needs to get his bleep together. He’s better than this. He is Much Too Young (to play this damn old). Seager was the face of their 2023 World Series team. He is also the face of a current team that is under performing, and an offense that is currently on strike from hitting baseballs, or scoring runs. Until he starts making contact, and doing Corey Seager things again, this offense will suffer, much as it did on Thursday in the finale of its six-game home stand, a 4-1 loss to the Kansas City Royals. After finishing a three-game sweep of Pope Leo’s beloved Chicago White Sox on June 15, the Rangers were finally back to .500.
The thrills of reaching .500 was replaced by a losing streak that is now three games after the Royals completed a sweep on Thursday afternoon at Globe Life Mall beore heading to Pittsburgh for a weekend three-game series. Seager finished 0-for-4 and left two runners on base. He’s now batting .239 for the season where all of his important statistics are trending towards a career-worst year. “You never want to struggle. I don’t know if ‘weird’ is the right word but trying to perform to help the team win, and it’s not happening,” Seager said after the game. “It’s more like, you want to win, you know? Not winning is the frustration.” That he talked to us media scum qualifies as a seismic event. Even in the best of times the 31-year-old is a bit of a recluse, and rather shy. This is the first time in his pro career that his offensive output matches his personality: Quiet. Corey Seager’s forever status as a Ranger is fine The moment the Rangers won the World Series, it effectively paid off Seager’s contract.
All 10 years and $325 million. The Rangers handed the shortstop that contract in November of 2021 with the design that he would lead them to a World Series. He did what fellow former Scott Boras client, shortstop Alex Rodriguez, could not. Seager’s tying home run in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 1 of the 2023 World Series gave this franchise its signature Cooperstown moment. Seager was the World Series MVP, and anything he did on top of that is additional ROI. The Rangers had searched, and spent, for decades in the hopes of those October moments and he delivered everything a superstar, Hall of Famer can. He is a brilliant defensive player, an exceptional athlete, a pro who swings a monster bat that can spank quality major league pitching. When a team signs a player to that type of contract the only proper return is a title; if the title comes, and the expensive player is a big reason for it, it’s worth it. Whatever happens until his contract expires after the 2031 season, Seager was worth the the money.
Corey Seager’s current status with the Rangers is disappointing When Kansas City top prospect Jac Caglianone hit his first Major League home run on Thursday in Arlington, it put the Royals ahead 3-0 and effectively ended the game. In the second inning. When he added his second home run, in the top of the ninth, it put the Royals ahead 4-1. These days, the Rangers need about four to six games to string together four runs. “We’ve been shutdown more than we all thought,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said after the loss.
“We have some guys trying to find their way, it’s fair to say.” That this list includes Seager is not unexpected as much as it feels mathematically impossible. He currently has six doubles, six home runs, and 14 RBI. This sort of slide shouldn’t happen until he’s 34. Ish. He said health wise he’s fine. He agreed that he feels the same at 31 as he did a few years ago. They all say that. He did say, “I don’t like the positions I’m in (while batting). Know what I am trying to do and can’t get out of it. Just trying to change it.” The firing of “offensive coordinator” Donnie Ecker, on May 5, and replacing him with Brett Boone has done, predictably, nothing. All of the team’s major offensive numbers remain near the bottom of Major League Baseball. Seager is at the center of what is fast becoming a crisis for a team that should be a contender, a point that Bochy delicately stepped around before Thursday’s game.
There is plenty of season left, but it is also nearly halfway done. The team is 36-39, and has the fourth-fewest wins in the American League. Seager has been a Major Leaguer since 2015, and he’s been around long enough to know what’s what, and who is who. The team will not win until its lineup starts to hit better than a collection of Class AA batters on a September call up. Seager is the highest paid hitter on a team with a big payroll, and he’s not producing to a level both the Rangers, and he, expect. Because of what he did in 2023, his legacy with the franchise is frozen in carbonite. But he’s only 31. He’s Much Too Young (to play this damn old)
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