SURPRISE, Ariz. — Inside an office just off the main lobby of the Texas Rangers’ complex, there is an enlarged photograph of Corey Seager, surrounded by his teammates, beaming as he lifts the Commissioner’s Trophy, the prize awarded for the first championship in franchise history. The image contains a small secret. When Seager hoisted that hardware at the team’s parade, days after he was named World Series MVP for the second time, he was managing discomfort on the front side of his left hip. He felt pain whenever he ran or occupied shortstop.
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“You’re not going to stop playing,” Seager said on Monday morning as the rest of the Rangers gathered for the season’s first full-squad workout. “Wrong time to.”
The right time, Seager figured, would come during the winter. “The hope was that he could go into the offseason and it would heal,” general manager Chris Young said. Except the injury, which was eventually diagnosed as a sports hernia, “never got better,” Seager said. “Probably partially a little bit of (my responsibility), thinking it was going to just heal eventually. Really unfortunate, you know? Definitely not happy with the situation.”
The condition required surgery on Jan. 30, far later on the calendar than either Seager or the organization preferred. Seager will be sidelined for much of this spring. His readiness for Opening Day is uncertain. “I have no idea,” Seager said. When his teammates took the field together on Monday, Seager found his activity limited to riding an exercise bike or walking on a treadmill at an incline. He said he had not asked team officials about a timetable for milestones like when he could swing a bat or appear in a game.
“If they gave me a date, I’m going to be (focused) on that date,” Seager said. “And if it’s not that date, then it’s aggravating for me. When they tell me a date I can do something, I try to do it as best I can.” Seager was asked when he might start to get “antsy” about his status. “I mean, I’m antsy now,” he said.
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Seager, a four-time All-Star who will turn 30 in April, is familiar with the rehab process. The Rangers understood the risk of injury when offering him a 10-year, $325 million deal after the 2021 season. (The same risk convinced the Dodgers, who drafted and developed Seager, to cap their offer at eight years and $250 million.) In his second season in Texas, Seager fulfilled the promise of his mega-contract, catalyzing the Rangers to a championship while dealing with hamstring, thumb and hip issues. He appeared in 119 regular-season games yet still led the American League with 42 doubles while slugging 33 homers with a 1.013 OPS.
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The recent surgery simplified his goal for this spring: “Get healthy,” he said. “There’s nothing else to do.”
The regenerative powers of various Rangers will be crucial to the team’s chances at a repeat. The starting rotation depends upon it. The team’s jumbled television situation has handcuffed the front office. After two years of signing big-ticket free agents, owner Ray Davis declined to authorize significant expenditures, which likely foreclosed a reunion with trade-deadline acquisition Jordan Montgomery.
Texas plans to scour the waiver wire in March for arms to supplement its pitching staff while waiting for two injured aces, Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer, to recover. The team hopes Scherzer can return from back surgery by June, with deGrom expected to come back from his second Tommy John surgery in August. In between, the Rangers are banking on a mid-summer contribution from right-hander Tyler Mahle, who signed a two-year, $22 million contract midway through his own Tommy John rehabilitation.
The infield took a hit before the first workout. Third baseman Josh Jung suffered a strained hamstring while fielding grounders last week. Manager Bruce Bochy suggested Jung would miss three weeks, a stint that should not jeopardize his season. But the incident underscored the uncertainty with Jung, a 26-year-old first-time All-Star in 2023, who has dealt with a variety of ailments in his nascent career.
The caution even applies to second baseman Marcus Semien, a modern-day Iron Man in the era of load management. Semien, 33, has missed just one game in the past three seasons. Batting leadoff last year throughout the season and the postseason, he compiled 835 plate appearances, surpassing a record set by Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Lenny Dykstra in 1993. Despite the workload, Semien declined to bask in the championship for more than his usual fortnight of rest between the conclusion of one season and the commencement of his offseason regimen.
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“I went right into working out,” Semien said. “I always think about our opponents and what they’re doing, the teams that didn’t go as far as us. ‘Why should I sit and take a three-week break because we went this far? Let’s do what we did last offseason.’ That’s my mindset.”
Bochy indicated he would maintain dialogue with Semien about the necessity of playing every day. “He loves to play,” Bochy said. “Now, you take that away — is that beneficial? That’s what you’re weighing. We’re in this game to play. Some guys just don’t want to sit.” Bochy described himself as familiar with the dynamic from his 26 prior seasons as a big-league manager. Semien reminded Bochy of former San Diego Padres third baseman Ken Caminiti and former San Francisco Giants outfielder Hunter Pence. “You take them out of the lineup, and they’re not happy,” Bochy said.
In the Cactus League, Bochy explained, Semien would not shoulder an excessive burden of at-bats. But Bochy would not be able to pair him in games with Seager, his double-play partner, as the manager did last spring. The bigger concern involves Seager’s presence in big-league games. He has averaged 118 games in full seasons, beginning with his National League Rookie of the Year campaign in 2016. A significant portion of his unavailability stems from a 26-game season in 2018 when he required Tommy John surgery on his right elbow and arthroscopic surgery on his left hip.
Seager’s most accurate historical comparison, according to Baseball-Reference, classifies as a cautionary tale: former Colorado Rockies star Troy Tulowitzki. Like Seager, Tulowitzki made four All-Star teams as a shortstop before his age-30 season. Like Seager, who stands 6-foot-4 and weighs about 215 pounds, Tulowitzki’s 6-foot-3, 205-pound frame made him an outlier at his position. Like Seager, Tulowitzki dealt with various nagging injuries while terrorizing opposing pitchers. Those injuries eventually consumed his career; Tulowitzki appeared in only 330 games after he turned 30, eventually succumbing to persistent problems with his right ankle.
The Rangers have placed a significant wager, both in terms of dollars and expectations, that Seager will follow a different path. Young pronounced himself confident that Seager will return at his top form — whenever he does return. The GM recalled a moment from the summer of 2023: Seager sat out nine games with a sprained right thumb. He skipped rehab outings and returned against White Sox right-hander Dylan Cease. Seager clobbered the second pitch he saw that night for a home run.
“Corey is amazing like that,” Young said. “He’s such an important player to our team. We need to make sure we get him healthy and prepared. And if that means he’s not ready for the beginning of the season, that’s fine. Having him out there for the majority of the season is way more important.”
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(Photo: Sam Hodde / Getty Images)