Evan Grant: Here’s my take on the Corey Seager-Marcus Semien relationship
February 7, 2026
Evan Grant: Here’s my take on the Corey Seager-Marcus Semien relationship
6 comments
>EG: “Certainly, there’s been some talk about what the Marcus Semien and Corey Seager dynamic was like, and I think the fact of the matter was there just wasn’t a dynamic. It’d be hard to call it a problematic relationship because I just don’t think those guys ever developed a relationship. I think that was not so much due to one or the other disliking the other.I think it was more of a fact that you had one guy who prepared for the game in one way, one guy who prepared for the game in another way. One guy who ended up being, you know, kind of the team spokesman and was I think forced a little bit into that role in Marcus. And another guy who was not very comfortable in the spotlight in Corey. And so you had these divergent paths, and I think when they both performed really well, the team performed, and when they didn’t or when they were missing, like Seager missed significant parts of the last two years and Semien’s performance went downward, you know, the team didn’t really perform well either.”
When theyre good, team good. When theyre bad, team bad
Just seems like they were different people. Corey just wanted to play ball and didn’t want to worry about anything else and Marcus at least tried to put some structure into the team.
I love Corey Seager and I think he’s a beast, but with the Marcus Semien stuff and the Kevin Pillar comments, I do sometimes worry that the Rangers lack that s-tier team chemistry that was always present during the MY, Kinsler, Beltre, Elvis era.
No one can ever make me dislike a single member of that WS squad (even Aroldis gets a neutral outlook from me). But my know-nothing guess is that there was enough personality in the room in 2023 for Marcus and Corey to not have to actually do much. The big ones that come to mind are Lowe and Hedgey. Not to mention the longest-tenured Ranger at the time in Leclerc. There was probably enough vocal leadership in the room for Marcus and Corey to kind of do their thing without Marcus having to force relationships. When those glue guys left, it fell harder on Marcus.
EG’s ultimatum about Jung is spot-on. That also extends to Carter, IMO. Both of those guys need to show us they can stay in the bigs and continue to grow (and stay healthy) the way we need them to.
This really doesn’t need to be a narrative.
Corey and Marcus were both veterans in the clubhouse, and neither are outspoken and vocal leaders in the traditional sense. Neither showed any emotion on the field until it mattered the most – when they did what they set out to do, and win the World Series. We don’t do that without BOTH of them.
The first player each of them celebrated with when we won was the other. That’s the only narrative I’ve ever cared about or will care about.
6 comments
>EG: “Certainly, there’s been some talk about what the Marcus Semien and Corey Seager dynamic was like, and I think the fact of the matter was there just wasn’t a dynamic. It’d be hard to call it a problematic relationship because I just don’t think those guys ever developed a relationship. I think that was not so much due to one or the other disliking the other.I think it was more of a fact that you had one guy who prepared for the game in one way, one guy who prepared for the game in another way. One guy who ended up being, you know, kind of the team spokesman and was I think forced a little bit into that role in Marcus. And another guy who was not very comfortable in the spotlight in Corey. And so you had these divergent paths, and I think when they both performed really well, the team performed, and when they didn’t or when they were missing, like Seager missed significant parts of the last two years and Semien’s performance went downward, you know, the team didn’t really perform well either.”
When theyre good, team good. When theyre bad, team bad
Just seems like they were different people. Corey just wanted to play ball and didn’t want to worry about anything else and Marcus at least tried to put some structure into the team.
I love Corey Seager and I think he’s a beast, but with the Marcus Semien stuff and the Kevin Pillar comments, I do sometimes worry that the Rangers lack that s-tier team chemistry that was always present during the MY, Kinsler, Beltre, Elvis era.
No one can ever make me dislike a single member of that WS squad (even Aroldis gets a neutral outlook from me). But my know-nothing guess is that there was enough personality in the room in 2023 for Marcus and Corey to not have to actually do much. The big ones that come to mind are Lowe and Hedgey. Not to mention the longest-tenured Ranger at the time in Leclerc. There was probably enough vocal leadership in the room for Marcus and Corey to kind of do their thing without Marcus having to force relationships. When those glue guys left, it fell harder on Marcus.
EG’s ultimatum about Jung is spot-on. That also extends to Carter, IMO. Both of those guys need to show us they can stay in the bigs and continue to grow (and stay healthy) the way we need them to.
This really doesn’t need to be a narrative.
Corey and Marcus were both veterans in the clubhouse, and neither are outspoken and vocal leaders in the traditional sense. Neither showed any emotion on the field until it mattered the most – when they did what they set out to do, and win the World Series. We don’t do that without BOTH of them.
The first player each of them celebrated with when we won was the other. That’s the only narrative I’ve ever cared about or will care about.