The Los Angeles Dodgers’ 2018 season was dealt a huge blow when Corey Seager was lost to Tommy John surgery in May, and president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman knows it.
Facing sky-high expectations in his rookie year, Seager surpassed them with a season that saw him win the 2016 NL Rookie of the Year in a landslide. In each of his two full years in the Majors, Seager has received All-Star and Silver Slugger recognition as well as MVP votes.
L.A. clawed back into playoff contention without Seager in 2018 and traded for Manny Machado to fill their hole at shortstop for the rest of the year. The Dodgers eventually won their seventh straight National League West title and second straight NL pennant before losing to the Boston Red Sox in the World Series.
It is to Friedman’s immense credit that the Dodgers still made the World Series despite losing such an elite part of their team for virtually the entire year. Friedman stockpiled quality infield depth like Kiké Hernandez and Chris Taylor to give the Dodgers immediate backup options at shortstop.
Still, Friedman recently admitted that nothing he did could properly replace such a special player in Seager. He believes the shortstop’s absence was especially felt in the postseason, per Andy McCullough of the L.A. Times:
“I think we missed him in a lot of ways, and never did I feel it more acutely than in October,” Friedman said. “He’s just a guy who is really tough to game-plan for. That quality of at-bat, interjected in the middle of our lineup, extends our lineup in ways that I’m not sure we fully appreciated until living without him last year.”
The Dodgers’ lineup indeed struggled without Seager in both the NL Championship Series and World Series. The Dodgers did defeat the Milwaukee Brewers in seven games despite slashing just .223/.305/.328 in that series. However, their bats continued to go cold against the star pitching of the Red Sox and became a major reason they fell in just five games.
For now, though, Seager is healthy and already reminding the Dodgers what he can do. He hit one of the team’s record eight home runs on Opening Day, and after some lulls, has settled into a nice rhythm of late.
Including Sunday’s win against the San Francisco Giants, Seager has a seven-game hitting streak and on Saturday tied a career high with four hits.
