Player: Corey Seager – Shortstop, 27 years old
Team: Texas Rangers
Contract: 10 years / $325 million
Past Career/Last Year Highlights
- #18 overall pick in 2012 MLB Draft
- 21.3 Career WAR
- 2016 Rookie of the Year
- 2020 World Series & NCLS MVP
- 2x All-Star
- 16 HR and .306/.394/.521 slash in 2021 (95 games)
Texas Rangers’ Recent History: 60-102 in 2021, 5th place in AL West
Last winning season: 2016 (95-67)
Corey Seager is a very good baseball player (when he is on the field) and he should agree to whatever contract he feels is the best situation for him.
Ok, that’s out of the way? Great.
Texas, what are we doing here? I saw this movie before in 2000 and the ending was worse for Rangers fans than how “The Sixth Sense” worked out for Bruce Willis.
The big difference there was Texas overextended themselves financially for a once-in-a-generation type talent in Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod signed with the Rangers as a 25-year-old 4-time All-Star with 38.1 career WAR.
Seager is three years older and has nearly 17 fewer career WAR, and has 85 fewer career HR than A-Rod had before he got to Arlington. And Seager signed for a deal that’s nearly in-line with A-Rod’s even with the 20+ years of inflation!
Defense is also a factor as Seager is largely an average defender at a premium defensive position. You want to splurge on a player who is an offensive force that handles a cornerstone spot? Go for it! You want to pay an above-average offensive player who is adequate at SS like he’s an MVP player? I have concerns.
A-Rod also was largely healthy for his pre-Texas run while Seager missed almost all of 2018 and needed Tommy John surgery. Seager also missed nearly half of last season with an injury as well.
Again, Seager should get every single dollar offered to him. But the Rangers should know doing the same thing again and expecting different results is not a best practice.
Turf Analysis – Grade = C
