Rangers star Corey Seager exited tonight’s game against the Orioles after being struck in the wrist area in the fifth inning by Baltimore lefty Cade Povich, as noted by several reporters (including MLB.com’s Kennedi Landry) on X. The Rangers subsequently announced that initial x-rays on Seager’s wrist were negative, though he’ll be evaluated further tomorrow to determine the severity of the issue.
An absence of any length for the 30-year-old superstar would be a brutal turn of events for the Rangers as they try to fight their way back into the AL playoff picture. The club currently sits at 37-45 entering play this evening, nine games back of the Mariners in the AL West and 7.5 games back of the Royals for the final AL Wild Card spot. With Texas currently buried behind the Red Sox, Astros, Rays, and Blue Jays in the race to catch the Royals for that final playoff spot, the Rangers were already facing an uphill climb as they seek an opportunity to defend their 2023 World Series championship this fall.
Now, it seems possible they’ll have to do so without Seager, at least for the time being. On the heels of a campaign where he slashed an incredible .327/.390/.623 en route to a second-place finish behind Shohei Ohtani in AL MVP voting as well as the second World Series MVP honors of his career, the 10-year MLB veteran got off to an uncharacteristically slow start in April but quickly began to heat up when the calendar flipped to May.
Over the past two months, Seager has slashed an excellent .273/.356/.521 (139 wRC+) to raise his season-long figure to 116, although digging a little deeper into his numbers would suggest that even that number has some misfortune baked into it. Seager’s .277 BABIP in 71 games this year would be the second-lowest figure of his career and just the second time he’s posted a figure below .300. Meanwhile, his .335 wOBA is a far cry from his expected .379 figure, the latter of which ranks 14th among qualified hitters this year, sandwiched between Bryce Harper and Mookie Betts.
Even setting aside Seager’s underlying performance and focusing purely on his production to this point, the shortstop’s 116 wRC+ is one of only two above-average offensive performances the Rangers have gotten from qualified hitters this season, trailing only the fantastic breakout performance of infielder Josh Smith. With key bats such as Marcus Semien and Adolis Garcia not yet meeting expectations this season, top prospects Evan Carter and Wyatt Langford struggling through injuries and ineffectiveness in their rookie campaigns, and star third baseman Josh Jung sidelined by a wrist injury of his own since early April, the Rangers lineup has in some ways leaned even more heavily on Seager this season than it did during his MVP-caliber 2023 season.
In the event that Seager misses time, Smith appears to be the most likely candidate to handle shortstop in his absence, sliding over to the position from third base. Jung appeared to be nearing a return to action not long ago, although as noted by Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News the youngster has been delayed in returning to taking batting practice by inflammation in his ailing wrist. According to Grant, Manager Bruce Bochy told reporters prior to tonight’s game that Jung will not swing this weekend and is headed to visit with a specialist on Monday to be re-evaluated. Even if that visit with a specialist ends up going well and Jung is cleared to resume swinging, Grant suggests that a conservative approach to his rehab could see him remain out until play resumes after the All Star break.
Should third base be left open by Smith taking over for Seager at shortstop, it appears likely that the Rangers would call up another infielder such as Ezequiel Duran or Justin Foscue to pair with utility infielder Davis Wendzel at the hot corner. Duran is the most established big leaguer of the three, having played his way into something of an everyday role with the Rangers last year in a bat-first utility role. The 25-year-old’s offense evaporated this year, however, as he hit a paltry .256/.294/.324 in 58 games before being demoted to the minors. Foscue, meanwhile, is a former top-100 prospect with a career .261/.396/.456 slash line at the Triple-A level who has just two big league plate appearances under his belt. Either player appears more likely to take the lion’s share of available at-bats rather than Wendzel, a 27-year-old rookie who has struggled badly at the plate with a wRC+ of just 15 in 25 games with the Rangers this year.
X Ray negative so that’s good but I still think it might be time to tank currently top 5 pick. Oakland, Chicago White Sox are not allowed to pick high since they did last year new rules.
So you’re suggesting a firesale after winning the WS like Loria’s Marlins did and alienate a fanbase?
Who would you sell off?.
Eovaldi, Scherzer , Robertson, Yates , Michael Lorenzen , Heaney, José Leclerc all Expiring contracts
I was looking other day and you do have a lot of free agents to be coming up in 2025.
Rangers 2023 was a fluke. Right mix of mediocre relievers getting hot at the same time as only slightly above-average bats.
By your definition, every WS champ has been a fluke.
Not at all.
Mlb got exactly what it wanted making all the extra playoff teams, throwing millions of free $$ at non spending teams, free draft picks to the same.
PT Barnum would be envious to the circus atmosphere baseball has become, including all the newly minted special days which are forced onto it.
@johnsilver I agree with you 100%. I made a comment the other day on here about how MLB should be more worried about consistency with the baseballs than they are with celebrating pride, and of course, some sensitive “man” wanted to cry and call me a bigot for it.
The two are not mutually exclusive so I don’t see how one thing takes precedence over another. MLB can walk and chew gum together.
— MLB can walk and chew gum together–
Sometimes, in all things. Pandering to 1 will alienate another. We are seeing pushback in other industries where it has cost them billions.
Pandering to miniscule amount by figures is a dangerous thing to do and might cost what used to be THE major sport, yet now is behind the NFL and NBA very costly and something triggered and blind higher ups need a hard lesson learned.
I agree with MLB Fanatic here, the 2 are in no way mutually exclusive.
As for consistency with the baseballs, you are absolutely correct. In today’s day and age they should not have such wide parameters for what is allowed. Enough baseballs are produced that they can easily have a much more uniform approach to what ball is used. To me this allows leeway for MLB to have some influence on outcomes and to try and manipulate things for outcomes they favor.
@john If you haven’t noticed the younger generation is more tolerable to these type of things and supports businesses that embrace such things. I might not agree as well with that lifestyle, but I’m not going to judge others on there sexuality. As far as the gender identity, I have an issue just because I seem to think it has more to do with mental health that is being ignored.
Ultimately though MLB has to panderto future fans. Older fans can complain as much as they want, the vast majority will still be fans despite threats not to be.
So I don’t hear Corey whining about an inside pitch like Judge. Yankees continue to widen their league lead hitting batters including hitting Spring on the hand the day after he hit two homers. Judge is an awesome talent – it’s a shame he’s such a crybaby.
He’s in NY, he has to be a whiny d-bag. It’s a requirement when in NY or LA.
Just a question about Josh Smith. He is described here as the Rangers second best hitter but last I checked his WAR is at zero for the year. That puzzled me since he has been playing 3B or SS mainly. I know WAR is not end all be all, but what accounts for it being zero ? Is his defense that bad?
Replied to you below, must have accidently posted it by itself instead of directly replying to you.
What website are you using?
Baseball Reference has him at a 3.5 WAR. Great defense and offense.
Fangraphs has him at a 2.5 WAR (Not to be confused with his projected WAR for the rest of season, which is 1.0) great offense and mediocre defense.
And just because I think WAR is overrated, Statcast has his Batting Run value at 18 and in the 94th percentile (basically he’s in the top 20 rankings for this stat). Defense not so great (32nd percentile).
Also, this is off topic but… his other Statcast numbers paint the picture of someone very much outperforming his expected value mostly due to his improved plate discipline. Just thought that was interesting and wanted an excuse to note it, so yeah.
The ESPN site. And that’s probably where my problem lies. It could be just an error/typo on his stat page because it lists WAR of 0.0 for each of his three seasons. According to what you have said, there is no way his WAR could be at that value. Thanks for the information!!
In today’s MLB more hitters crowd the plate than ever. Add to the fact most hitters used to hide their hands behind them (not all), it’s not surprising hitters get hit on the hands. Hate to see it, it’s painful, but it’s expected given how tight hitters are to home plate.
SIMPLE:
You hit a batter with a pitch that results in a lost time injury of ANY length.
Pitcher is SUSPENDED for that same length of time.
Well that’s about the dumbest idea ever. If a hitter smacks a line drive off a pitcher and breaks his leg does the hitter miss 2 months as well?
Pitcher is suspended because the hitter crowds the plate? How about hitters lose their padded protection so they’ll be forced to back off the plate? Better yet, if you’re hit in the pad you are not rewarded first base.
If you think any of this is silly, that’s exactly what your comment is.
“Meanwhile” has to START the sentence. As a conjunctive adverb, it can’t come in the middle, between commas. Deeds stinks.
O’s fan here…I thought for certain Gunnar was going to get plunked tonight. The O’s hit a few more Rangers to boot tonight. I guess Texas decided it’d be better to K him 4 times and beat them 11-2. Respect to Texas.