Rangers place Corey Seager on 10-day injured list with right thumb sprain
ARLINGTON — The Texas Rangers will be without one of baseball’s best hitters for the foreseeable future.
Texas placed All-Star shortstop Corey Seager on the 10-day injured list Saturday with a right thumb sprain, and in a corresponding move, recalled catcher Sam Huff from Triple-A Round Rock. Seager injured his thumb on Friday night on an eighth-inning slide into second base vs. his former team.
Advertisement
Seager said he’ll be away from baseball activities for “at least a week” to let the inflammation die down. A Saturday MRI showed no structural damage.
Advertisement
“I’m not overly worried about it,” Seager said Saturday. “Obviously [the injury] was painful, it’s just unfortunate.”
Rangers Be the smartest Rangers fan. Get the latest news. Email Address By signing up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy SUBMIT
Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said Friday night that X-rays on Seager’s thumb came back negative and that he was day-to-day. Seager went 2 for 3 with a home run and a double before he was pulled from Friday’s game.
Ezequiel Duran played at shortstop in Seager’s absence on Saturday vs. the Dodgers, while left fielder Travis Jankowski batted second in the lineup. The earliest Seager can be activated is Aug. 1 vs. the Chicago White Sox, which means he’ll miss the Rangers’ three-game series at the Houston Astros from July 24-26.
Advertisement
Seager has played in 54 straight games for the Rangers since he was eased back from a six-week long stint on the injured list with a right hamstring strain in May. He’s hit .342 with 6 home runs and 22 RBIs in his last 30 games and has a .350/.413/.631 slash line this season. In 55 games since returning from the injured list on May 17, Seager slashed .348/.402/.647/1.049 with 14 home runs, 25 doubles (most in the American League) and 54 RBIs.
“There’s not too many hitters I’ve ever been around like Corey,” Bochy said Saturday.
His numbers back that. So does the drop-off between Seager and his fill-ins. The Rangers went 19-13 when Seager was on the injured list earlier this season, though his replacements in the two-hole combined for a .645 OPS (22nd-best in MLB) and a WRC+ of 79 (26th-best).
Advertisement
Bochy didn’t disrupt the rest of Texas’ lineup in Seager’s first absence this season — first baseman Nathaniel Lowe remained third in the lineup, right fielder Adolis Garcia fourth, third baseman Josh Jung fifth, catcher Jonah Heim sixth and so on — and rather pulled from the team’s depth. Jankowski batted second 11 times during Seager’s five-week stint on the injured list from April-May while outfielder Robbie Grossman did so 17 times. Duran hit second twice.
Advertisement
Bochy said Saturday that the Rangers will follow the same plan this time around, too. This time, the Rangers hope and believe, they won’t need to hold the fort sans Seager for too long.
“It could’ve gotten a lot worse than it was,” Seager said.
On Twitter: @McFarland_Shawn
Advertisement
Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
Source: The Dallas Morning News
