On Sunday, the Texas Rangers made a big move by signing second baseman Marcus Semien to a seven-year $175 million deal. Monday, they topped that by coming to terms with shortstop Corey Seager on a 10-year, $325 million deal.
So far this offseason, Texas has committed $556 million to three players, the third being starting pitcher Jon Gray who signed a four-year $56 million deal hours after they inked Semien. The Rangers are looking to make some noise in the American League West next year following their 60-102 record in 2021.
During the 2020 COVID-19 shortened season, Seager batted .307 with 15 home runs in 52 games. In the postseason Seager took home NLCS MVP and World Series MVP as the Los Angeles Dodgers took home the title. In both series, Seager had a slash line of .347/.439/.816.
Last year, Seager started the season slowly, batting just .267 through 35 games before fracturing his right hand after getting hit by a pitch. The shortstop went on to miss almost 11 weeks before returning in late July. Seager came on as the season went on and finished the year batting .306 with 15 home runs.
Seager has never struck out at a higher-than-average rate in a season, and he rarely chases pitches outside the strike zone. Seager’s 11.7% walk rate in 2021 was the highest of his career, around three percentage points better than the league mark. The former Dodger will be a great addition to the Rangers lineup showing that he can hit for both average and power.
In the field, Seager has been below average in Defensive Runs Saved. In 2019 and 2020, Seager was good in Outs Above Average, but didn’t fare as well last year. The main thing the Rangers need to worry about when they’re doling out the kind of money they did the last few days is Seager’s injury history. He only has 452 regular-season games out of a possible 709 over the last five years, though he’s undeniably made an impact when on the field.
Prior to the season the Rangers had the worst odds to win the 2022 World Series with many sports books having them at +15000 or worse odds. The trio of signings however certainly changes the outlook for next year both in Texas and Vegas alike.
-LaMarr Fields
Twitter: @raiderway83