Corey Seager and Walker Buehler were two of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ highest-rated and most hyped prospects over the last decade, and both ended up meeting those lofty expectations.
The pair helped the Dodgers win the 2020 World Series as Seager led the way with an otherworldly postseason run to earn National League Championship Series and World Series MVP honors.
Unfortunately for the Dodgers, Seager left in free agency following the 2021 season to join the Texas Rangers on a 10-year, $325 million deal while Buehler needed to undergo Tommy John surgery for the second time in his career and missed the 2022 and 2023 postseason.
But Seager has still been producing well and helped the Rangers reach the 2023 American League Championship Series with his best season to date in the regular season.
Buehler, who is known to be one of the most analytical minds as a pitcher in baseball, had a lot of praise for what his former teammate is able to do at the plate, via Just Baseball Fans on YouTube:
“He’s a really, really talented human. Disciplined, has an approach and knows what he’s trying to do. I think one of the interesting things is we see him swing 0-0 so much, and I remember talking to somebody about this, after 0-0 he’s like one of the most disciplined hitters in the game. But on 0-0, he swings at like 98% of strikes or something. If you get past 0-0, I don’t want to say he’s not the same hitter because he’s still unbelievable, but his approach is drastically different. If you don’t throw him strikes he won’t swing.”
During the 2020 postseason, Seager hit .328/.425/.746 with eight home runs, 20 runs scored, 20 RBI and a 203 wRC+ across 18 games. In the 2020 NLCS alone, he blasted five home runs in seven games while driving in 11 runs.
During the 2023, he finished the regular season batting .327/.390/.623 with a 169 wRC+ while also tying his career high of 33 home runs, the mark he also set in his first season with the Rangers.
Corey Seager made LCS history
Although the Rangers were blown out by the Houston Astros in Game 4 of the ALCS to tie them at two games each, Seager blasted a home run that tied the game in the third inning.
With that home run, Seager became the first shortstop in MLB history to hit home runs in both the NLCS and the ALCS.
He now has eight home runs in LCS play total, with seven of them coming for the Dodgers, which also includes two in 2021. In total, Seager has 15 total home runs across 70 postseason games.
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