Corey Seager has been on an absolute tear as of late and Major League Baseball took notice by handing him the National League Player of the Week honors.
Corey Seager is the National League player of the week.
— J.P. Hoornstra (@jphoornstra) September 23, 2019
Seager has surely had a long road to ride these past two seasons, marked by consistent injuries — a Tommy John surgery and invasive hip surgery — but is slowly starting to return to his previous form as an MVP candidate type of player.
On the season, Seager’s numbers do not look as sparkling as one would expect, seeing him post a .273/.336/.478 slash line with a 112 wRC+ and 3.1 WAR. To put this into perspective, though, this season has been better than Manny Machado’s first season in San Diego as a $30 million man. That is somewhat of a flawed way to put things into perspective, but the fact that Seager — while not at 100% health — has outperformed one of the game’s brightest stars, is something that warrants praise. Machado sits at a 105 wRC+ and 2.6 WAR while playing 22 more games than Seager.
Since returning from injury on August 11, Seager has shown flashes of his old form, slashing .298/.324/.596 with a 134 wRC+. While the lack of walks is concerning, Seager hitting the baseball and hitting it hard is obviously a fantastic sign as October looms:
While Corey Seager might be hot, there’s one thing I don’t like:
Prior to 2019: 9.6 BB%, .372 OBP
3/28-8/5: 10.0 BB%, .344 OBP
8/6-current: 4.1 BB%, .291 OBP
8/20-current: 3.6 BB%, .273 OBP
— Daniel Preciado (@DanJPreciado) September 11, 2019
This past week, though, Seager has shown up in a big way. He slashed .500/.520/.917 across 25 plate appearances, with five of his 12 hits coming in the extra-base variety. He has been entirely locked in at the plate and it’s a pleasure to see.
Let’s hope this continues, because if Seager can be what he used to be, this lineup becomes that much more deep and feared heading into October.