Corey Seager Claims Major Texas Rangers Award
Worlds Series MVP Corey Seager is the Texas Rangers Player of the Year for 2023, it was announced Wednesday to the highlight of the team's annual awards.
Along with Seager, the other awards were Dane Dunning (Pitcher of the Year), Josh Jung (Rookie of the Year), Nathaniel Lowe (Harold McKinney Good Guy) and Leody Taveras (Richard Durrett Hardest Working Player).
The awards were voted on by members of the Baseball Writers Association of America who cover the Rangers on a regular basis.
World Series MVP Corey Seager was named the Rangers Player of the Year for 2023.
The Rangers executed a 22-game turnaround from last year’s 68-win season to claim their first playoff berth since 2016 and rode that momentum to the franchise’s first World Series title. Along the way, the Rangers beat their American League West rival Houston Astros in a seven-game AL Championship Series.
The Rangers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks in five games in the World Series, where Seager earned his second World Series MVP award, adding to the one that he won with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020.
Seager missed 43 games due to two injured list stints, but still became the first shortstop since Elvis Andrus in 2017 to win the award. He batted .327 with 33 home runs and 96 RBI in 119 games, and led the AL in doubles (42) and ranked among the league leaders in batting average (second), slugging (second, .623), extra base hits (tied for second, 75), on-base percentage (third, .390), homers (tied for fifth) and RBI (tied for 10th).
Seager won the Silver Slugger at shortstop and was second in AL MVP voting to Shohei Ohtani.
Dunning started the season in the bullpen, but moved back into the starting rotation after an injury to Jacob deGrom. His contribution proved vital to Texas’ turnaround, as he went 12-7 with a 3.70 ERA. He led the Rangers with 172 2/3 innings, tied for the team lead in wins and was third in starts (26) and strikeouts (140). Dunning won this award in 2021 and is the seventh Rangers pitcher to win the award at least twice.
Jung was a potential AL Rookie of the Year candidate before a broken thumb put him on the injured list for nearly six weeks. In spite of that, he batted .266 with 23 homers and 70 RBI in 122 games, and is the third full-time third baseman to win this award for the Rangers.
He ranked third among AL rookies in doubles (25), RBI, total bases (223), extra base hits (49), and home runs (tied). Jung became the first Rangers rookie to start an All-Star Game and was named AL Rookie of the Month for the first two months of 2023.
Lowe was the Rangers player of the year in 2022. This season he batted.262 with 17 homers and 82 RBI in 161 games as he won his first Gold Glove at first base with a .998 fielding percentage. Lowe ranked among the AL leaders in walks (second, 93), doubles (fifth, 38), hits (tied for eighth, 163) and on-base percentage (10th, .360).
Taveras was given the award which is typically given to the team’s most improved player. He batted .266 with 14 homers, 67 RBI, and 14 stolen bases in 143 games with the Rangers as their everyday center fielder. The award is named for Richard Durrett, a former Rangers beat writer.
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