The timeline for Corey Seager was accelerated a bit last year as the Los Angeles Dodgers called up their promising shortstop in early September. Seager was expected to join the club during the final month of the regular season but he was needed earlier than anticipated due to an injury to Jimmy Rollins.
All the organization’s top prospect did was unseat the veteran as the starting shortstop and proceed to become the youngest position player in franchise history to start a postseason game when he was in the lineup for Game 1 of the 2015 National League Division Series.
Seager entered this season as the heavy favorite to win NL Rookie of the Year. He surpassed expectations and was a unanimous selection for the award, finishing ahead of Washington Nationals utility man Trea Turner and fellow Dodgers rookie Kenta Maeda.
Seager’s play put him in the discussion for MVP, which was awarded to Chicago Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant in a runaway.
Including the postseason, Seager appeared in 168 games this season, far and away the most of his career. Seager felt better prepared for a second postseason run, but coping with and overcoming fatigue emerged as a new challenge.
“It was obviously a learning curve,” Seager said of his first full season in the Majors. “I never experienced the same thing the Minor Leagues. It’s one of those things where you almost have to go through it to grasp what it takes. This offseason you can put the work in, do extra running and conditioning.”
Seager hit .308/.365/.512 with a 137 OPS+, .372 wOBA and 137 wRC+. He led the Dodgers in batting average, on-base percentage, total hits (193), doubles (40), triples (five) and was second in home runs (26).
The 22-year-old paced qualified NL shortstops in doubles, home runs, batting average, slugging, wOBA, wRC+, was second in OBP and third in RBI. Seager broke Steve Sax’s Los Angeles franchise record for most hits in a single season (180 in 1982).
In addition, Seager also set a Dodgers franchise record for most home runs by a shortstop in a season, broke Eric Karros’ rookie record for most doubles (30), and with 321 total bases broke Mike Piazza’s rookie record (307).
