SEATTLE — Corey Seager’s season is officially over.
For the second straight year, he’ll spend the offseason recovering from a sports hernia. The difference is that this time he won’t wait for the injury to heal on its own. Seager will have surgery on Friday to repair a hernia on the right side of his groin, opposite the one he had in January. General manager Chris Young did not give an exact timeline for Seager’s recovery, but said having the surgery now will allow him ample time to rehab and be ready to go when the Rangers report to spring training in February.
“Every surgery is different,” Young said, “and I can’t promise you when it will be, but I think the decision to have the surgery now gives me the best opportunity to have a strong offseason.”
“The offseason is important for all our players, not just those who are rehabbing or coming off surgery. It’s the time to really practice and prepare for the upcoming season so that our players can come into spring training in tip-top condition and start the year strong and healthy. If we don’t have an offseason like this, we’re starting at a bit of a disadvantage.”
Seager was plagued by a sports hernia late in the 2023 season and played through it through the postseason, ultimately winning the World Series MVP award. He tried to rest the injury last offseason, but it didn’t progress far enough and he underwent surgery to repair the injury on the left side of his groin on Jan. 30 in Arizona. He then spent most of spring training rehabbing and didn’t take an at-bat in a game until the penultimate day at Surprise. Dr. Venkata Evani, who performed that surgery in January, examined Seager in Phoenix this week. Dr. Evani is expected to perform the surgery as soon as Friday.
Young said it’s not uncommon for players to have problems on both sides. He cited his own experience as a player who had bilateral hernia repair surgery. He said Seager’s injury last year didn’t seem to have adversely affected his right side, but he understands that when one side of the muscles that attach to the pelvis weakens, the other side often has to compensate.
The 30-year-old Seager has been on the disabled list since September 4. He hit his 30th home run of the season on August 29 at Chicago, marking his third consecutive season with 30 or more home runs since joining the Rangers. He played in 123 games this season, 113 of which were at shortstop. Seager has played in fewer than 125 games in each of the past two seasons. In 2023, he missed one month with a hamstring injury and 10 days with a sprained thumb.
In Seager’s absence, the Rangers have primarily used infielder Josh Smith at shortstop, with Jonathan Ornelas and Ezequiel Duran also starting. But Smith may be worn down. He’s already had 525 at-bats — more than he had in his first two major league seasons combined — and his batting performance has dropped off significantly in the second half of the season. He started the Seattle series batting .224/.274/.304/.578 since Aug. 1.
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