Since making his Major League debut for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2015, Corey Seager has established himself as one of the league’s top shortstops on both sides of the ball. He followed up a historic 2016 Rookie of the Year campaign with another excellent season in 2017 and received further recognition for his accomplishments on the field.
As part of his annual positional rankings, ESPN’s Buster Olney ranked Seager as the third-best shortstop in all of baseball, only behind the Cleveland Indians’ Francisco Lindor and Houston Astros’ Carlos Correa. Seager placed second on the list last season, trailing just Lindor at the time.
In 613 trips to the plate across 145 regular season games, Seager hit .295/.375/.479 with 33 doubles, 22 home runs and 77 RBI. What’s more, he additionally drew 67 walks and stole four bases — both career highs, despite logging 74 fewer plate appearances than the year before.
Seager enjoyed similar success with his glove as well, tallying 10 defensive runs saved while sporting a 9.5 UZR/150. Both of those metrics ranked near the top among qualified shortstops, where Seager finished as a runner-up for Gold Glove honors.
The 23-year-old accumulated 5.7 WAR (FanGraphs) for his efforts, and racked up a plethora of accolades in the process. He was selected to his second consecutive National League All-Star team and earned a Silver Slugger Award at his position.
Seager enjoyed a successful three games in the NL Division Series, where he hit .273/.467/.455 with one homer and two RBI over 15 plate appearances. A back injury sidelined him in the NL Championship Series, but he ultimately returned to action in the World Series against the Houston Astros.
In 31 plate appearances, Seager batted .222/.290/.370 with one double, one home run and four RBI. He noticeably wasn’t at full health during the matchup and struck out nine times in the series.
Despite this, Seager avoided offseason surgery and now looks to turn the page with a clean slate in Spring Training.
