Corey Seager has not gotten a hit in 27 straight at-bats. The Rangers finally have a reason to give him a real break.
Texas placed the All-Star shortstop on the 10-day injured list Monday with lower back inflammation, retroactive to May 15. The move came after Seager underwent an MRI on Sunday, having begun experiencing back pain on Saturday morning. He had not played since Wednesday against Arizona, so the injury had been building for several days before the team made the official move.
The timing makes you wonder how much of Seager’s terrible start to the season has been health-related. He is batting just .179 with seven home runs and 20 RBIs through 42 games. That career-worst 27 at-bat hitless streak is the kind of slump that does not happen to a hitter like Seager unless something is wrong physically. The back, presumably, has been wrong for a while.
Seager is one of the best pure hitters in baseball when healthy. He has been an All-Star multiple times. He won a World Series MVP in 2023. He is the kind of player who, even in a bad year, would normally hit .260 or .270 with power. To be at .179 in mid-May tells you the swing is broken, the bat speed is off, or the body is fighting him.
The Rangers had to act. They recalled utility infielder Michael Helman from Triple-A Round Rock in the corresponding move. Helman is not a long-term replacement for Seager. He is a placeholder while Seager rests, gets treatment, and tries to find his swing.
This is also the second year in a row that Seager has dealt with significant injury issues. He has been on the injured list multiple times in his Rangers career. The big contract Texas handed him a few years ago, ten years and $325 million, is starting to feel like it is going to be a lot of money for a player whose body is not cooperating.
For the Rangers, the bigger concern is the offense as a whole. They have not been hitting at the levels they expected, and Seager going down does not help. Marcus Semien has been solid. Adolis Garcia has been streaky. The bottom of the order has been a problem. Losing the lineup’s best left-handed hitter for at least 10 days is a real blow.
The optimistic read is that this might be exactly what Seager needs. Lower back inflammation is the kind of thing that often gets better with rest. If he can take 10 to 15 days, get his core strength back, and clear his head, he might come back swinging at a much higher level than he had been. He has done it before.
The pessimistic read is that he is 32 now and these back issues have a way of becoming chronic. Once a hitter loses bat speed because of a back problem, getting it back is not automatic. The Rangers are going to have to monitor his return carefully and not rush him back if he is not actually feeling better.
From a fantasy baseball perspective, Seager is a hold. He is too talented to bench permanently, and the price you would get in a trade right now would be insulting. From a Rangers perspective, the move is overdue. They needed to take their shortstop out of the lineup before he hurt himself worse. They did it. Now they just need him to come back as something close to the player he was.
Texas plays in a tough AL West with the Astros and Mariners both expected to contend. Every game matters. Losing Seager is a real problem, but it might be the kind of problem that gets solved with a couple of weeks of rest. That is the best-case scenario the Rangers have to hope for.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
