What About Corey Seager Impresses Texas Rangers Manager Bruce Bochy?
In this story:
Corey Seager had two more hits in the Texas Rangers’ 4-0 loss to San Francisco in split-squad action on Wednesday.
The Rangers could get used to this. Seager extended his hit streak to 13 games with the 2-for-4 afternoon. Assuming he plays in the Rangers’ prime-time game with the Oakland A's on Thursday, he’ll be in position to match Elvis Andrus’ 14-game spring hitting streak from 2013.
Seager’s streak is also the longest in MLB Spring Training.
Rangers manager Bruce Bochy has been around Seager for a while, but from afar. He was the manager of the San Francisco Giants when Seager broke in with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2015.
Bochy watched Seager bat .300, win a Rookie of the Year award, finish third in National League MVP voting and go to the All-Star Game twice.
Now he’s getting an up-close view of Seager every day.
“I knew he was a good hitter,” Bochy said. “But he’s an even better hitter than I thought. I gotta be careful with that because I knew how good he was.”
During the hitting streak Seager is batting better than .500, with three home runs and six RBI. Overall, no Rangers hitter has more home runs in Spring Training than Seager’s four.
Bochy is as impressive with Seager’s ability to field his position as he is his bat. At 6-foot-4, Seager doesn’t fit the prototypical shortstop mold. Bochy said “he’s big to play short,” but Seager has a career fielding percentage of .970 at the position.
But the Rangers didn’t pay him $350 million over 10 seasons for his glove. Well, maybe they did a little. But the Rangers want the Seager that hit a career-high 33 home runs last season.
“The most impressive thing to me is how consistently he hits the ball hard,” Bochy said. “He’s had a great spring and I can see where a lot of hits were taken away from him with the shift. But he has a very easy way about him. He’s very calm. He has his routine and it works for him. It’s just good at-bat after good at-bat with him.”
More From SI’s Inside The Rangers:
- Jose Altuve Injury Potentially Helps Texas Rangers Playoff Chances
- MLB Plan for Television Texas Rangers
- Texas Rangers Terminating TV Rights if Bally Sports Goes Bankrupt
- Texas Rangers TV Uncertain in RSN Bankruptcy
- Rangers Must Lock Up Two Big Stars Before Season
- Latest Rangers Roster Projection
- Rangers Make Decision on Left Fielder
- Rangers Opening Day Starter, Rotation Appear Set as Season Looms
- Rangers Must Decide Futures of Two Players Out of Options
- Rangers Ace deGrom Honest Thoughts on Pitch Clock, Organization
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard
Catch up with Inside the Rangers on Facebook and Twitter.
Need to catch up on the Rangers? Check out our Texas Rangers Offseason Central Page!
Need to get ready for Spring Training? Check out our Rangers Spring Training Tracker.
