Seager heads to IL with right thumb sprain
ARLINGTON — The Rangers have already gone with out star shortstop Corey Seager for a month this season, and so they should go a pair extra weeks as soon as once more.
Seager landed on the 10-day injured checklist for the second time in 2023, this time with a proper thumb sprain, the membership introduced earlier than a 16-3 loss to the Dodgers on Saturday. He was faraway from Friday evening’s loss to the Dodgers within the eighth inning after jamming his thumb on a slide into second base.
“It was painful,” Seager mentioned. “It’s just unfortunate. … Obviously, you don’t want anything too bad, and it could have [been] a lot worse than it was.”
The X-rays have been detrimental on Friday, and the MRI on Saturday confirmed no structural injury, so Seager ought to solely want across the full 10 days to let the irritation subside. The solely different hand harm Seager has suffered in his large league profession was a metacarpal fracture in his proper hand in 2021 with the Dodgers.
“I’m sore and I’m swollen, but it’s kind of to be expected,” Seager mentioned. “Sorry, I don’t have any answers because I don’t know where I’m at. So we’ll kind of see as it goes.”
This season, Seager is hitting .350 with 15 dwelling runs, 58 RBIs and a 1.044 OPS in 66 video games whereas rating amongst AL leaders in doubles (T-2nd, 29), extra-base hits (fifth, 44) and RBIs (T-Thirteenth). He missed 31 video games from April 12-May 17 with a left hamstring pressure, however hadn’t missed a step since returning. In 55 video games since coming off the IL, Seager slashed .348/.402/.647 with 14 dwelling runs, 25 doubles and 54 RBIs.
But the Rangers ought to as soon as once more be in good fingers with out him.
Without Seager the primary time round, the Rangers went 19-13 and the offense thrived.
Texas’ lineup was probably the greatest in MLB over that span, slashing .271/.342/.450 with a 119 wRC+ as a group. Their 200 runs have been essentially the most in MLB throughout that point interval.
“Look, I’ll say this a lot — when something like this happens, you have no choice but to move on,” mentioned supervisor Bruce Bochy. “That’s what we’ll do, and we have needed to do it earlier than, so we all know we are able to. It’s apparent we’re gonna miss Corey. I imply, this man, what a fantastic participant he’s.
“So I think we got the best of the news that we could get about his situation. It’s going to be a little time, but not like it could have been, so I’ll take the news that we got. I consider that good news. When I first heard about it, I was really concerned, but it was good news.”
And they need to be set on the shortstop place as properly.
In Seager’s absence earlier this season, utilityman Ezequiel Duran began the majority of the video games at shortstop. In 29 video games (26 begins) when Seager was on the IL, Duran slashed .303/.339/.532 with six dwelling runs and 21 RBIs. Duran began at shortstop on Saturday for the second sport in opposition to the Dodgers.
Duran went 1-for-3 with a stroll and a run scored in Saturday’s loss.
“It really sucks with Corey going down, but at the same time, he went down earlier in the year and the team stepped up,” mentioned starter Dane Dunning, who gave up 5 runs in three innings. “I feel like our team is competitive enough and talented enough to be able to do that again. Obviously, it hurts us a little bit with Corey going down, but Zeke has been a phenomenal, phenomenal hitter at the plate and he’s a great defender as well. So we just kind of keep moving forward and wipe these last two days away and just go from there.”
Bochy added that he expects to assemble his lineup equally to how he did when Seager was out the primary time, and he’s inspired by how your entire group responded.
“It’s a great message to the club with how well they played when he went down before,” Bochy mentioned. “It shows that it’s not always just one player. It’s nine guys, and these guys really showed a lot of resolve last time it happened and it’s what we have to do now. You have no choice. So here we are.”
