Will Corey Seager Have Been Worth It For The Texas Rangers?

This offseason, the Texas Rangers were the most aggressive team in baseball when it came to upgrading their middle infield.

Within just a few days of each other last winter, second baseman Marcus Semien and shortstop Corey Seager both signed with the Rangers. Semien to a seven-year, $175 million deal, and Seager for ten years and $325 million. Both contracts were signed before the lockout.

Sixty games into the season, it’s time to start examining whether these contracts are paying off yet.

The Rangers are in second place in the American League West, but they’re two games below .500 and 7.5 behind the Astros. The Rangers have a bit of a winning streak going at three games, but they’re 5-5 in their last ten. At this point, the Rangers would miss an AL Wild card spot by 2.5 games. This is not terrible, but is it good enough for a team that spent so much during the winter?

It’s still too early to say the Rangers aren’t getting the expected return on their offseason investment in Semien and Seager, but it’s probably time to start wondering.

Seager, maybe more so than Semien, attracts attention because of the length and financial magnitude of his deal. He has a .689 OPS through 58 games played, and Seager has committed eight errors on defense already, which matches his total while still with the Dodgers in 2021.

Given Seager’s production on offense and the position he plays on defense, he is going to attract added criticism, especially given the size of his contract. But is it time to consider whether shortstop is the best spot on defense for him?

“I don’t plan on moving him anytime soon,” manager Chris Woodward said. “It would take somebody that’s really, really good at shortstop to move him. I like where he’s at. His attention to detail at that position is very reliable. It’s not always about the rangy plays, right or left.”

Seager is not a bad shortstop by any stretch, but when his offensive numbers are at this level, that’s when the questions start coming about whether he will have been worth the decade-long, $300 million-plus contract.

There are not signs that he is trending in the right direction at the plate, either. After hitting .256 in April, Seager has dropped to .214 in May and .184 so far in June. He does have 12 home runs on the season already, but his overall slugging percentage is at just .402 and his wRC+ sits just below league average (95). In short, he’s hitting the longballs, but not much else.

Still, Woodward maintains his faith in Seager.

“I want every guy to have his mentality when it comes to the game itself,” Woodward said. “First game of spring training, he treats the same as a World Series game, so his staying locked in in every moment he’s in makes him unique. It’s honestly what’s always drawn me to him.”

If the Rangers have designs on reaching the postseason at some point during Seager’s tenure, his experience at that level will be invaluable. He has 264 playoff plate appearances, thanks to trips to the postseason with the Dodgers in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, all the way to a World Series title in 2020, and last year. Seager has a lifetime .777 OPS in the postseason.

That degree of experience in October makes Seager valuable to the Rangers in ways beyond what he does in the box score in April, May, or June, according to his manager.

“He places just as much importance on the smaller moments as he does the bigger moments,” Woodward said, “and I think that allows him to be successful in those big moments because he doesn’t change anything. He doesn’t take a pitch off. He doesn’t take an at-bat off. I want more of our guys to gravitate towards that.”

Still, for ten years and well over $300 million, Woodward and Rangers fans would undoubtedly like to see a lot more from Seager. It is far too early to tell whether they will come away from this investment happy or not, but the early signs have not been good.

But Seager does have a career slash line of .290/.360/.495. It is probably safe to guess that after playing the entirety of his career in Los Angeles, these poor early returns with the Rangers might at least partially be a product of Seager adjusting to a new environment.

Time will have to tell, but before too long, the Rangers would like to see Seager look more like the player they saw such value in when they signed him last winter.