Very Close! Great News For Injured Texas Rangers Infielders Corey Seager, Josh Jung
The left side of the Texas Rangers infield could be back for Opening Day, according to general manager Chris Young and manager Bruce Bochy.
Third baseman Josh Jung appears on track to be a lock to start on Opening Day, and shortstop Corey Seager is right behind him.
Jung, who strained his left calf at the start of camp, is expected to play in spring games before the March 28 season opener against the Chicago Cubs at Globe Life Field.
"I don't want to jump ahead yet to Cory, but I think Josh for certain," Young told reporters Saturday. "He's ahead of where Cory is right now, and he's been able to do more baseball activity. But we're still cautiously optimistic for Cory. If it's not opening day, it'll be shortly thereafter."
Seager is recovering from Jan. 30 sports hernia surgery and has yet to do much besides light swings in the case this spring. But the club is excited by his progress.
"Cory is doing great and progressing nicely. He's been swinging in the cages and trending towards live BPs sometime this coming week," Young said. We'll evaluate and see where he is in terms of game status shortly thereafter, but he's doing wonderfully, and we're very pleased with his recovery."
Jung has been able to swing the bat and take grounders for a couple of weeks but the club has limited his full return to prevent a setback, especially when it comes to running full speed.
Additionally, first baseman Nathaniel Lowe, who strained his oblique earlier this month, is unlikely to return until a couple of weeks into April.
"I think we're looking at mid-April at the earliest on him," Young said. "Obviously, no baseball activity right now. He has a ways to go and once he does get started, we're going to have to build him back up with traditional spring training to make sure he gets a lot of at-bats and passes the tests."
Bochy said Seager's swinging will ramp up on Monday against live pitching and the hope is he'll see some backfield game action at shortstop.
"Start getting him prepped for the season," Bochy said of Seager. "It's hard to say and the reason I'm saying that ... our experience with him, we've seen how fast he comes back off an injury."
But Bochy cautioned that Seager is coming back from several months of very little to no baseball activity in this case, not coming back from an in-season injury.
"You're looking at all winter of not picking up a bat. So that's a bit different this time around because it does take time to build the strength up and everything," he said. "That's what we'll have to look at and evaluate after so many at-bats to see where he's at."
Bochy said about 25 at-bats against live pitching is probably enough for Seager to be ready to return.
"How does the bat feel? He's got to be in a place where it's comfortable, it's light," he said. "With that said, I think that's enough at-bats as far as seeing pitches and everything."
You can follow Stefan Stevenson on X @StefanVersusTex.
Catch up with Inside the Rangers on Facebook and X.
