ARLINGTON — Rangers have already been without star shortstop Corey Seager for a month this season, and they have another couple of weeks to go.
Seager landed on the 10-day injury list for a second time in 2023, this time with a sprained right thumb, the club announced ahead of a 16-3 loss to the Dodgers on Saturday. In Friday night’s loss to the Dodgers, he was knocked out in the eighth inning after pinching his thumb sliding into second base.
“It was painful,” Seager said. “It’s just unfortunate. … Obviously you don’t want anything too bad, and you might as well [been] much worse than it was.”
X-rays were negative on Friday and MRI on Saturday showed no structural damage, so Seager should only need about the full 10 days for the inflammation to subside. The only other hand injury Seager has suffered in his big league career was a metacarpal fracture in his right hand in 2021 with the Dodgers.
“I’m in pain and swollen, but that’s kind of to be expected,” Seager said. “Sorry I don’t have any answers because I don’t know where I stand. So we’ll see how it goes.”
This season Seager is hitting .350 with 15 homers, 58 RBIs and a 1,044 OPS in 66 games while ranking among the AL leaders in doubles (T-2nd, 29), extra base hits (5th, 44) and RBIs (T-13). He missed 31 games from April 12 to May 17 with a left hamstring strain but hadn’t missed a step since his return. In 55 games since leaving the IL, Seager hit .348/.402/.647 with 14 home runs, 25 doubles and 54 RBIs.
But even without him, the Rangers should be in good hands again.
The first time without Seager, Rangers took a 19-13 lead and the offense blossomed.
Texas’ lineup was among the best in MLB during the period, posting a .271/.342/.450 as a team with a 119 WRC+. Their 200 runs were the most in MLB over the period.
“Look, I say that a lot — when something like this happens, you have no choice but to move on,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “We’re going to do that, and we’ve had to do it before, so we know we can do it. It’s obvious that we will miss Corey. I mean this guy, what a great player he is.
“I think we got the best news we could get about his situation. It’s going to be a while, but not as it could have been, so I’ll take note of the news we’ve had. I think that’s good news. When I first heard about it, I was really worried, but it was good news.”
And they should also be set at the shortstop position.
With Seager absent earlier this season, utility man Ezequiel Duran started the majority of games as shortstop. In 29 games (26 starts) when Seager played in the IL, Duran hit .303/.339/.532 with six homers and 21 RBIs. Duran started as a shortstop in Saturday’s second game against the Dodgers.
Duran achieved a 3-1 win in Saturday’s loss with a walk and a run.
“It really sucks when Corey goes down, but at the same time he went down earlier in the year and the team has come up,” said starter Dane Dunning, who gave up five runs in three innings. “I feel like our team is competitive enough and talented enough to do it again. Of course it hurts us a little bit about Corey going down, but Zeke was a phenomenal, phenomenal hitter at the plate and he’s a great defender too. So we just go ahead, wipe away the last two days and just go from there.”
Bochy added that he expects to build his lineup similar to what he did when Seager was first out, and he’s heartened by the reaction from the entire team.
“It’s a great message to the club how well they played when he went down before,” said Bochy. “It shows that it’s not always just one player. It’s nine guys and those guys showed really great determination last time and that’s what we have to do now. You have no choice. So here we are.”