Rangers SS Corey Seager Ranked Among MLB's Best
Texas Rangers shortstop Corey Seager is considered the No. 5 shortstop in baseball, according to rankings by Audacy.com.
Seager is coming off a season in which he batted 245/.317/.455/.772 with 33 home runs and 83 RBI in 151 games. He also had 24 doubles, one triple, 58 walks and 103 strikeouts. In the field, he handled a career-high 600 changes and had a fielding percentage of .972 (17 errors).
Seager set a career high in home runs, nearly set a career-high in RBI (high is 87) and avoided major injury. He settled in as the No. 2 hitter all season and made the All-Star Game for the third time.
The Rangers acquired Seager last offseason on a 10-year, $350 million deal, the largest in club history.
Seager could see improvement in his batting average and production for one simple reason — the shift ban. Research at MLB.com suggested that no player will benefit more from the shift ban than Seager, calculating that he would have had 20 more hits last season if there was no shift. That would have pushed his batting average to .278.
The shortstops listed in front of Seager were the San Diego Padres’ Xander Bogaerts (No. 4), Minnesota Twins’ Carlos Correa (No. 3), Philadelphia Phillies’ Trea Turner (No. 2) and New York Mets’ Francisco Lindor (No. 1).
The Chicago Cubs’ Dansby Swanson, Tampa Bay Rays’ Wander Franco, St. Louis Cardinals’ Tommy Edman, Milwaukee Brewers’ Willy Adames and Toronto Blue Jays’ Bo Bichette round out the Top 10.
Seagar is set to begin his third Spring Training with the Rangers. Pitchers and catchers report to Surprise, Ariz., on Feb. 15, with position players to follow by Feb. 20.
The Spring Training game schedule starts on Feb. 24 with a game against Kansas City at the Surprise complex shared with the Royals.
The Rangers will wrap up their exhibition season with a pair of games at Globe Life Field against the Royals on March 27 and 28. The Rangers open up the regular season at home against Philadelphia on March 30.
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